| | |  News Around the Republic of Mexico | January 2009 
Detained Mexican Beauty Queen Released
 Associated Press
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| | Laura Zuniga Huizar is seen in this photo released in this December 26, 2008 file photo. (Attorney General office/Reuters) | |
Mexico City – Prosecutors ruled Friday that a Mexican beauty queen be released from house arrest after investigations in a drug and weapons case turned up no evidence against her.
Laura Zuniga, 23, was detained in western Mexico on Dec. 23, in a vehicle along with seven men, some of them suspected drug traffickers. Authorities found a large stash of weapons, ammunition and $45,000 with them inside a vehicle.
She was stripped of one of her crowns — the title she won in the Hispanoamerican Queen pageant in October — but still holds the beauty title of the northern state of Sinaloa, long known as a center for Mexico's drug cartels.
Prosecutors on Friday said Zuniga should be released and local media reported that she left custody later that day.
The Attorney General's Office said in a statement that "no information was found that tie (Zuniga) to any criminal activity."
The Bolivia-based organizer of the Hispanoamerican Queen pageant, the Gloria Promociones company, said in a statement in December that Zuniga lost her crown for "failure to comply with the regulations of the title she represents."
The company said the title would be given to runner-up Vivian Noronha of Brazil.
No one answered phones at numbers listed for Gloria Promociones in Bolivia on Friday.
Zuniga also placed third in the Miss Mexico contest, whose winner competes for the Miss Universe title. As third-runner up, she was expected to represent Mexico in the 2009 Miss International contest.
Prosecutors said a judge had agreed to extend the house arrests of the seven men detained along with Zuniga. |
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