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Colombian lingerie model jailed for cocaine trafficking
My only crime was to love my boyfriend, says Angie Sanclemente, protesting her innocence
COLOMBIAN beauty queen Angie Sanclemente Valencia has vowed to appeal against a six-year jail sentence after an Argentine court yesterday convicted her of trafficking cocaine via 'mules'.
Sanclemente, a lingerie model and winner of the prestigious title Colombia's Coffee Queen, told the court that her only crime was to love her boyfriend Nicolas Gualco. Gualco was also jailed yesterday, along with his uncle, Daniel Monroy, and the Venezualan Gustavo Paez Arneses.
The case began with the arrest of a heavily-disguised Sanclemente in Buenos Aires last year, in connection with a mule caught carrying 55kg of cocaine through Buenos Aires airport. Her arrest led to the capture of accomplices who together formed a multi-million dollar international drug empire.
Judge Marcelo Aguinsky said the verdict was "a message to the bands, (about) the mules used as cannon fodder. It breaks the myth that we cannot reach higher", the Argentine daily Pagina 12 reported.
The sentence was met with hysterical scenes in the court-room. According to the Argentine agency Terra, Sanclemente's mother Yaneth "threw a slap" at one of the witnesses, called the court a "circus" and claimed the verdict was motivated by anti-Colombian racism. ·
