Laura Zuniga Busted, You’ve Come a Long Way Baby … from Mexican Beauty Queen to Drug Trafficker & Gun Running

Meet disgraced Laura Zuniga, Miss Narco

Aren’t beauty contestants supposed to be for causes like world peace, starving children or environmental protection? Who knew that Mexican beauty queen Laura Zuniga pet project was drug trafficking. Laura Zuniga, the reigning beauty queen of Sinaloa, Mexico has been arrested with suspected gang members in a truck filled guns and ammunition. Her statement to authorities was that she was with the men to go shopping in Bolivia and Colombia.

The bust by authorities included AR-15 assault rifles, 38 specials, 9mm handguns, nine magazines, 633 cartridges and $53,300 in U.S. currency. One of the men arrested with Laura Zuniga has ties to the leadership of the Juarez drug smuggling cartel.  Just another example of how drugs, guns and gangs have permeated Mexico and infiltrated so many aspects of life in Mexico.

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.

This picture released by the Jalisco Goverment’s press office of the members of a gang arrested on December 22, 2008 in Jalisco, Sinaloa state, Mexico. Laura Zuniga (C), the Mexican beauty queen jailed after she was picked up with an alleged drug cartel leader and heavily armed men, has been stripped of one of her titles, Bolivian organizers said Saturday

The down fall of a beauty queen to the seedy side of Mexican Drug Trade.

But beneath the media frolics, the tale of the fallen beauty queen highlights the dark side of how sprawling crime syndicates have penetrated so many areas of Mexican life. With the cartels estimated to make $30 billion from smuggling narcotics, the U.S. Treasury has named dozens of Mexican companies, from dairy farms to clothing chains, as money launderers.

Beauty Queen send Merry Christmas wishes from jail

Laura Zuniga was expected to represent Mexico in the 2009 Miss International contest. However, not so fast. Laura Zuniga has been stripped of her title by contest organizers as Zuniga “failed to follow the rules of the contest, which state that the winner must display correct behavior, stay away from scandals and bad habits, and be a good example to society.”

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.