Angie Sanclemente Valencia: From Beauty Queen to Drug Trafficker

Parents can be a pain when it comes to lecturing about drugs, drinking or hanging out with the proverbial “wrong crowd.” But in the end, mom really does usually know best. In this case, not following that maternal advice may have led to a Colombian beauty queen’s downfall -- and a prison sentence for drug trafficking.

It was a meteoric rise for Angie Sanclemente Valencia. From her humble beginnings in Barranquilla, Colombia, she became a beauty queen at 21, crowned Colombia's “Queen of Coffee,” CNN reports. That title led to international modeling work and other opportunities.

Unfortunately, Sanclemente was dethroned when it was discovered she had been married. Reports tied her in matrimony to a Mexican drug trafficker, but she's always denied that. In an interview shortly after the claims cost her the crown, Sanclemente lamented the consequences of not listening to the woman who raised her as single mother. “I'm very capricious and a lot of [bad] things have happened to me for not listening to my mother.” 

If only she could have seen into the future, she might have made different choices. In May 2010, Sanclemente was arrested after five months on the run in Argentina and charged with drug trafficking. Interpol had issued an arrest warrant against her in December 2009 after she was connected to a 21-year-old woman who was arrested just before she was to board a flight to Cancun, Mexico, from Buenos Aires carrying a whopping 120 pounds of cocaine. The fallen beauty was on the run for five months, hiding in Argentina.

Sanclemente has continued to insist she is innocent and has maintained contact with CNN. Despite her protests, her 2010 arrest made headlines around the world, with the press rechristening the pageant winner “The Queen of Cocaine.” Four men and two other women were also arrested in connection with the case, including Sanclemente’s Argentinian boyfriend and his uncle.

Now 32 and sentenced to six years and eight months behind bars, Sanclemente is looking back with regret. She says moving to Argentina from Mexico was a big mistake. “I regret having taken the flight to Argentina, to be honest with you,” she told CNN.

It’s a stark reminder to those of us in the US that drug traffickers come in all shapes and sizes and the battle to keep dangerous substances out of the hands of individuals too addicted to stop taking them is far from over.

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