The Colombian model imprisoned in Argentina for running an international drug-trafficking ring has been sent back to her native country.
Angie Sanclemente was sentenced in an Argentine court in November 2011 to six years and eight months in prison for attempting to smuggle cocaine to Europe using young female drug mules.
Argentina’s migration laws specify that a convicted foreign citizen can be expelled from the country after they have served half of their sentence. The former model and beauty queen was driven to Buenos Aires’ Ezeiza airport and boarded a flight for Bogota on Friday.
Sanclemente’s was one of five convicted in the case. The others included the model’s Argentine boyfriend, Nicolas Gualco, his uncle, Daniel Monroy, and Argentine model Maria Noel Lopez.
MORE: Fugitive Colombian ‘model-turned-drug lord’ arrested
It was Lopez who was captured at a Buenos Aires airport trying to smuggle 55 kilos of cocaine to Cancun, Mexico, from where it would be taken to Europe. After her confession, police uncovered an international drug-trafficking ring that used Argentine models as drug mules. The models would receive $5000 to smuggle drugs into Mexico, according to analysis website Insight Crime.
Sanclemente, now 33, was captured on May 26th, 2010, in a K-Lodges hostel in Buenos Aires’ trendy Palermo neighborhood after evading the authorities for five months.
She denied accusations that she was the person, referred to by the code name “Diamond,” whose voice was recorded in intercepted telephone calls discussing drug trafficking operations. She claims that she was framed by drug traffickers involved with her boyfriend.
The drug-trafficking ring allegedly recruited young models, known as “angels”, who were told to look “nice, but not flashy” as they caught flights to Mexico once every 24 hours carrying a cargo of cocaine.