Beauty queen Jessica Anne Jordan Burton declares war on cocaine

London, Aug 15 (ANI): British-born former model Jessica Anne Jordan Burton has been set in charge of cleaning up the drug-infested border province of Beni, Bolivia.

President Evo Morales, a socialist Aymara Indian appointed the beauty queen to be his viceroy in Beni, a remote and volatile drug-infested province.

"Drugs are a problem. Trafficking is a problem. Corruption is a problem. Poverty is a problem. So I feel I have a mission," The Guardian quoted Jordan as saying.

"I am taking this post very seriously and I love it. I feel I am in my place," she added.

Jordan has even accepted the possibility of an assassination.

UN and US officials estimate that 30,000 hectares of illegal coca is now being cultivated in Bolivia. Authorities have seized more than 18 tonnes of cocaine this year but that is believed to be a small fraction of what is being shipped to Brazil and Europe, reportedly making cocaine Bolivia's third main revenue source after gas and mining.

Critics have scorned Jordan as being just a lightweight eye candy, but Miguel Angel Ruiz, a congressman for Beni who belongs to the president's Socialist party, defended the appointment.

"Now Evo Morales has created an agency at national and regional levels to try to stop drug trafficking and smuggling once and for all. And Jessica's role at a regional level is key in this," he said.

Meanwhile, Jordan says her looks are no longer relevant or important.

"The physical thing doesn't really matter. I have already proved I can do the job," she said. (ANI)