Beauty queen accused of murdering rival cartel member she was engaged to

Vanessa Gurrola Peraza, 32, has been arrested on suspicion of killing Christian “El Chato” Espinoza Silver, a member of the rival Arellano-Felix Cartel

A former beauty queen and model has been arrested on suspicion of killing a rival cartel member, to whom she was reportedly engaged. Vanessa Gurrola Peraza stands accused of murdering Christian “El Chato” Espinoza Silver, an operative tied to Mexico’s notorious Arellano-Felix Cartel.

The alleged slaying occurred on February 17 last year in San Diego, California, US. She is set to face the court on Monday (20 Oct). The 32-year-old woman, who was arrested early on Monday morning, is currently being held at the Las Colinas Detention Facility in Santee, facing a first-degree murder charge.

Gurrola is also suspected of having links to Los Chapitos, a splinter group of Mexico’s infamous Sinaloa Cartel.

The victim, El Chato, had reportedly been romantically involved with Gurrola since 2017, and the couple were believed to be engaged. His death has been unofficially connected to the ongoing turf war between Los Chapitos and remnants of the Arellano-Felix Cartel.

One the night of the alleged murder, gunshots were heard near a residential complex by a shopping centre, with alarmed residents of University City, located in Southern California, on the border with Tijuana said to have informed local police of the incident, InfoBae news has claimed.

Gurrola first shot to fame after being crowned “Queen of the Floral Games Festival” at Mexico’s Mazatlan Carnival in 2011. She later launched her own line of weight-loss products, broadening her public persona beyond modelling, as reported by local news outlets.

In September last year, during the peak of the Sinaloa Cartel’s internal strife, she was accused of working as an operative for Los Chapitos, the faction led by Ivan Archivaldo and Jesas Alfredo Guzan Salazar, sons of Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman.

She is accused of financing her lavish lifestyle through property deals and money-laundering activities linked to the group. Gurrola, who has a following of 1.4 million on Instagram, last shared a post from a spiritual retreat in Bali, Indonesia.

Her rise to internet fame began in 2018 when she was mistaken for El Chapo’s spouse, Emma Coronel Aispuro. Mexican press later nicknamed her “Emma Coronel’s double” due to her striking similarity to the former beauty queen.

Gurrola once confessed that this case of mistaken identity had actually boosted her popularity. “It doesn’t bother me – my followers have even gone up,” she revealed during a TV interview in 2019.

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