Laura Elena Zúñiga Huizar (born 3 January 1985), is a Mexican model and former beauty queen, who in December 2008 became a central figure in an international drug trafficking scandal.
[citation needed] On December 22, 2008, Zuñiga was arrested in Zapopan, Jalisco, along with seven men who allegedly carried US$53,000 in cash, two AR-15 rifles, three handguns, 633 cartridges of different calibers, and 16 cellphones.
During a later interview with Joaquín López-Dóriga in Radio Formula, Zuñiga declared that she was kidnapped by her boyfriend Ángel Orlando García Urquiza, apparently a high-ranking leader of the Juárez Cartel and brother of an imprisoned drug lord,[5] and that she was unaware of his illicit activities.
The Nuestra Belleza Mexico organization released a statement saying it had no knowledge of Zuñiga's alleged narco-trafficking ties and that it would decide pending an investigation whether or not to let her keep her crown.
[9] Zuñiga was sentenced to 40 days under arrest but was released from the detention center on January 30, 2009, after the judge found no evidence that tied her to any criminal activity.