Mexican drug "queen" bemoans jail bed bugs

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - One of Mexico's most glamorous drug suspects, a woman dubbed "Queen of the Pacific," has complained to a human rights body about bed bugs in her jail cell after being captured two weeks ago.

Sandra Avila telephoned Mexico City's Human Rights Commission to moan about the biting bugs and complain she cannot receive gifts of food while behind bars.

She was caught alone driving a BMW sport utility vehicle near her house in the Mexican capital and has been jailed pending trial on charges of organized crime and money laundering in Mexico and the United States.

Avila is accused of helping build up the Sinaloa cartel on Mexico's Pacific coast in the 1990s through her friendships with the gang's leaders including Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman, Mexico's most wanted man.

Her capture and that of her boyfriend, Colombian trafficker Juan Diego "The Tiger" Espinosa, fascinated many Mexicans as it showed a side of drug trafficking that is little seen.

Most traffickers are hardened males, so many were shocked to see a smartly dressed woman with a flirtatious style being put behind bars.

TV images showed Avila, in her mid-forties, openly smirking in custody and chatting lightheartedly with her captors.

Mexico City's human rights commission has promised to investigate her complaints.

"She has complained they are not letting her receive food and about noxious fauna, like bed bugs and the like, so we are checking into the subject," its executive secretary Luis Javier Vaquero told reporters.