Lola la Chata
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María Dolores Estévez Zuleta (1906–1959), commonly known as Lola la Chata, was the first major female drug trafficker dealing marijuana, morphine and heroin in Mexico from the 1930s to 1950s. She became well known due to tabloid newspaper coverage. She was a predecessor of today’s drug trafficking culture in the country.[1][2]
Estévez went from being a local dealer to an international trafficker at a time when the drug trade was becoming more sophisticated. She sold her merchandise both outside and inside of prison for almost thirty years, contributing to a crisis in relations between the governments of Mexico and the United States. Efforts against her included a Mexican presidential decree, but she avoided a life sentence and continued her activities.[1][3]
Known as one of the first female drug traffickers in Mexico, La Chata began as a vendor of fried pork skin (cracklings or “chicharrones”) in the La Merced barrio of Mexico City, where she grew up. During her childhood this neighborhood was growing with a large influx of immigrants from various parts of Mexico, which increased the area’s formal and informal commercial activity. As a child she worked at her mother’s stand selling chicharrones and coffee. When she was thirteen, she began selling marijuana and morphine from this stand. Soon after she worked as a “mule” selling drugs on the streets of the city, using common baskets to hide the merchandise.[4]
Through this activity, she met Castro Ruiz Urquizo of Ciudad Juárez, accompanying him there and learned about the international drug trade, making connections with some of the more prominent families in this activity living along the US-Mexico border. Living in the north, she had two daughters, María Luisa y Dolora, both of whom also later became involved in drug trafficking, making her a matriarch.[1]
After she returned to Mexico City, La Chata opened her own stand selling food in La Merced. However, she used this business as a cover to continue selling marijuana, morphine and heroin through the 1920s.[1]
Rise
By the end of the 1930s, Estévez’s activities came to the attention of the governments of both Mexico and the United States as one of those most responsible for the growth of the drug trade in Mexico City.[4] Her network extended from that city into the United States and even into Canada, constructed from family and romantic connections, the only ones available to women of that time period. She married a former cop named Enrique Jaramillo and converted a mechanics’ shop in Pachuca into a distribution center. Her marriage gave her contacts in the police and the political class, which provided her information and a means of money laundering. Another of her known accomplices was Enrique Escudero Romano. Her relationship with him and other men allowed her to continue expanding her business beyond Mexico City. Jaramillo was her principal point person in Mexico City and Escudero helped her maintain contacts and laboratories outside the city.[1]
Although the rise in drug trafficking was becoming more problematic for North American governments in the 1920s and 1930s, Estévez’s prominence in the trade made her seem more dangerous to drug control efforts because she was a woman. The narrative of anti-drug efforts was that it made women victims. However, La Chata was not a passive participant, but rather an opportunist.[1]