Jailed Mexican beauty queen stripped of her crown

Houston Chronicle/AP ^ | Dec. 27, 2008 | MARK STEVENSON

[SwinneySwitch]

MEXICO CITY — A Mexican beauty queen detained on suspicion of drug and weapons violations has been stripped of her crown in the Hispanoamerican Queen pageant, contest organizers said Saturday.

Laura Zuniga, 23, was stripped of first-place honors for "failure to comply with the regulations of the title she represents," Bolivia-based pageant organizing company Gloria Promociones said in a statement. She beat more than 19 contestants from Latin America, the Caribbean and the United States to win the title in October.

Runner-up Vivian Noronha of Brazil will receive the crown.

The company statement did not specify what pageant rules were broken by Zuniga, who was detained in western Mexico on Dec. 22 along with seven men, some of them suspected drug traffickers. Authorities found a large stash of weapons, ammunition and $53,300 with them inside a vehicle.

Zuniga told police the group planned to travel to Bolivia and Colombia to go shopping.

Zuniga still holds the Miss Sinaloa title from a Mexican state beauty contest in July. And she 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.

Miss Mexico pageant organizers say they are awaiting the results of the investigation before deciding what to do.

But doubts are already beginning to arise about Zuniga's string of pageant victories, after a Sinaloa state official told local media that she may not have gone through the proper auditions for the Miss Sinaloa contest.

[SwinneySwitch]

"Everything indicates she won her crown through the intervention of her boyfriend, a drug lord,"

[nmh]

YEah, she’s a real “beauty”.

LOL!

Ugly on the inside to boot.

[Perdogg]

NOT GUILTY!

[BillyBoy]

[Travis McGee]

Hmmmm.....

[snarks_when_bored]

Jailed Mexican beauty queen stripped of her crown

The first five words of that headline represented such a promising start for this thread...

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Wow. Drug and gun money sure can buy you a nice set of knockers, LOL!

[SolidWood]

Typical of Mexico. Jailing obvioulst INNOCENT girls... tsk tsk.

[mnehring]

Very, very not guilty.

[Hammerhead]

breeder hips, fake ones, and 23 (= pain in the @zz).

....no thanks.

[TheZMan]

I dunno about this. Those hips could use some slimming; they stand out.

[nuconvert]

Lovely couple

[csvset]

Cavity search !

[SolidWood]

She’ll certainly find a personal trainer.

[Liberty Valance]

Next ... Vivian is not guilty either!

[ErnBatavia]

They do have that “purchased” look, don’t they?

[SwinneySwitch]

Ping!

If you want on, or off this S. Texas/Mexico ping list, please FReepMail me.

[AlexW]

YEah, she’s a real “beauty”.
LOL!
Ugly on the inside to boot.

I think you were a bit too fast on the draw.

The following pic from Perdogg looks quite nice to me.
I wonder what you would look like in a mug shot. :P

[boocoowell]

Modern day gun moll makes good. Cough.

[Krankor]

....stripped of her crown

I wonder if they did it like they do in those western movies when they boot the cowardly soldier out of the fort. I mean, did she have to walk past a line of her fellow beauty queens with a drum roll reverberating in the background until she reaches the pageant host who then reads a list of her offenses from this big paper scroll and then rips the tiara off her head?