40 days jail for Mexican beauty Laura Zuniga

Mexico, Dec 27: Laura Zuniga, the Mexican beauty who was reportedly arrested along with Ciudad Juarez drug cartel leader and a group of heavily armed men was sentenced to 40 days by a Mexican court.

Laura was held on Monday, Dec 22 at a military checkpoint in the western state of Jalisco while travelling with 7 armed men in two vehicles carrying 100,000 dollars in cash. The office of Mexico's Attorney General said that a Judge on Friday, Dec 26 ordered 'the cautionary measure' of 40 days detention for Laura and the men 'for probably committing crimes' relating to drug trafficking and transporting weapons.

Mexican officials said Laura Zuniga was arrested along with Garcia Urquizar, who is believed to be one of the leaders of Jaurez Cartal. Police sources earlier identified Laura as Urqizar's girlfriend.

Zuniga was crowned 'Miss Sinaloa' in July and also won the 'Queen of Hispanic America' contest in Nov in Bolivia. When she was arrested with a group of men the police officials found two AR-15 rifles, three pistols, 633 cartridges and 16 mobile phones along with the cash in the vehicles.

Garcia Urquizar's brother Ricardo, known as 'The Doctor,' was also a top Juarez drug cartel operative until his arrest in 2005. The Juarez cartel is believed to be responsible for smuggling up to 20 per cent of all the cocaine consumed in the United States, for annual profits of 660 million dollars.

OneIndia News (With inputs from Agencies)