This was published 15 years ago
Arrested: beauty queen stopped in truck filled with weapons and cash
A Mexican beauty queen from the drug-plagued state of Sinaloa has been arrested with suspected gang members in a truck filled with guns and ammunition, police say.
Miss Sinaloa 2008 Laura Zuniga stared at the ground, with her flowing dark hair concealing her face, as she stood squeezed between seven alleged gunmen lined up before journalists.
Soldiers wearing ski masks guarded the 23-year-old model and the suspects.
Zuniga was arrested shortly before midnight on Monday at a military checkpoint in Zapopan, just outside the colonial city of Guadalajara, said Jalisco state police director, Francisco Alejandro Solorio.
Zuniga was riding in one of two trucks, where soldiers found a large stash of weapons, including two AR-15 assault rifles, .38 specials, 9mm handguns, nine magazines, 633 cartridges and $US53,300 ($78,000) in cash, Solorio said.
Zuniga told police that she was planning to travel to Bolivia and Colombia with the men to go shopping, Solorio said.
When the former preschool teacher won Miss Sinaloa in July she gave an impassioned speech about how society should value women more, especially mothers.
In October, she won the Hispanoamerican Queen beauty contest against competitors from across Latin America.
She came third in the Nuestra Belleza Mexico pageant in Monterrey in September. That pageant sends its winner to the Miss Universe contest.
For coming third, she was expected to represent Mexico in the 2009 Miss International contest.
Zuniga is from the Pacific coast state of Sinaloa, the home of the powerful cartel of the same name.
Lupita Jones, the national director of Nuestra Belleza Mexico, released a statement distancing the organisation from Zuniga. Jones also said Nuestra Belleza knew nothing about "any illicit activity in which she could be involved''.
The organisation also says it will await the results of the investigation before making any decision about whether to strip Zuniga of her crown.
"Since 1994, Nuestra Belleza has been a serious, honest and transparent organisation dedicated exclusively to preparing Mexican women to successfully represent our country in various contests and whose object is to show the beauty, value and intelligence of each one of them," Jones said.
Tatiana Limpias of Gloria promotions, which organises the Hispanoamerican contest in Bolivia, said that its lawyers were also looking into the matter before making a decision about her crown.
AP