Model arrested after hide-out

A COLOMBIAN model accused of leading a drug-trafficking gang that persuaded pretty young women to smuggle cocaine to Mexico has been arrested after evading Argentine police for five months.

Angie Sanclemente Valencia had been hiding out in Buenos Aires since December, when airport police caught a 21-year-old Argentine woman with 55 kilograms (121 pounds) of cocaine in her baggage boarding a flight to Cancun. That led to arrests of six other alleged gang members who allegedly fingered Colombia’s former “coffee queen” as a ringleader.

Argentina’s media quickly dubbed Sanclemente the “Narco Queen” but two officials involved in the case said her specific role in the smuggling organisation has not been established.