Wanted: A Colombian woman with long hair, thick lips and honey-colored eyes, 30 years old, with surgically enhanced breasts and a redone nose. She likes Spiderman and recites the poetry of Pablo Neruda.
With this and other information, police in Argentina are looking for Angie Jeaneth Sanclemente Valencia, a dethroned Colombian beauty queen and lingerie model who, according to authorities, led a band of beautiful women who transported cocaine from Buenos Aires into several European countries.
Figuring that beauty distracts from suspicion, Sanclemente recruited in Argentina ``pretty and discreet young women'' willing to travel with several kilos of cocaine in their luggage to Spain via Cancún, Mexico.
Payment for the trip: $5,000.
On Saturday, former Argentine judge Guillermo Tiscornia, who said he is the attorney for Sanclemente, told Radio Mitre his client is not a drug queenpin. He add that Sanclemente doesn't want to surrender because ``she is afraid of being raped in jail,'' Buenos Aires daily paper La Nacion reported.
TRACKING MARIA N
The network of model-mules was discovered at the beginning of December 2009, after Argentine authorities found 55 kilos of cocaine in the suitcase of a young, attractive woman, owner of a Pomerian puppy, who was traveling first class to Cancun.
Following the tracks of the 21-year-old woman, identified only as María N., the police went to a hotel where they suspected Sanclemente had been staying, but it was too late.
She had escaped, leaving a trail of feminine audacity that is becoming increasingly common in the world of narcotrafficking that, up to now, had been dominated by the male drug kingpin.
Sexy and daring women appear on most-wanted lists in the United States, Mexico and Colombia or are awaiting trial on charges of trafficking large quantities of cocaine.
In some cases, these were women leading a life of luxury and tranquility but then suddenly found themselves forced to assume the day-to-day tasks of a narco-trafficking organization after the death or arrest of their husbands or brothers.
In other instances, the women gradually earned the respect of drug traffickers, often after showing an aptitude for financial management and money laundering, a former Colombian drug lord explained to El Nuevo Herald.
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