Mexico Under Siege

MEXICAN BEAUTY QUEEN ARRESTED WITH SUSPECTED DRUG GANG MEMBERS, GUNS
AND BULLETS

GUADALAJARA, Mexico (AP) -- A reigning Mexican beauty queen from the
drug-plagued state of Sinaloa was arrested with suspected gang members
in a truck filled 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 $53,300 in U.S.
currency, Solorio said Tuesday.

State police identified one of the men caught with her as the brother
of an alleged drug trafficker from Ciudad Juarez, a city on the U.S.
border, and said the man appeared to have been her boyfriend.

Zuniga told police that she was planning on traveling 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 in October against competitors from across Latin America.

She placed third in the Nuestra Belleza Mexico pageant in Monterrey in
September. That pageant sends its winner to the Miss Universe contest.
For placing 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. It was not immediately known whether
Zuniga and the men were being investigated for drug ties.

Lupita Jones, the national director of Nuestra Belleza Mexico,
released a statement distancing the organization from Zuniga. Jones
also said Nuestra Belleza knew nothing about "any illicit activity in
which she could be involved."

The organization 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 organization dedicated exclusively to preparing Mexican
women to successfully represent our country en 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 organizes the
Hispanoamerican contest in Bolivia, told The Associated Press that
their lawyers were also looking into the matter before making a
decision about her crown.

About 90 percent of the cocaine entering the United States passes
through Mexico, earning its powerful and vicious cartels billions of
dollars a year and allowing them to corrupt the segments of society
ranging from the police and army to musical groups.