A 22-year-old Colombian model has been sentenced to 15 years in prison after being convicted of drug smuggling by the People’s Intermediate Court of Guangzhou on Monday, according to the Nanfang Daily.
The convicted, Juliana Lopez Sarrazola, had aspired to compete in the 2015 Miss World beauty contest in Sanya, China – a dream that was crushed when she was caught at Guangzhou’s Baiyun Airport with 610 grams of cocaine on July 18 last year.
“I wanted to attend the Miss World beauty contest in 2015,” Sarrazola, who confessed to the crime, reportedly said in court. “It takes quite some money to pay for the travel and hotels.”
In an effort to attend the pageant, Sarrazola allegedly borrowed USD2,500 from a man named Sergio under the condition she smuggle the cocaine into China. The man also reportedly threatened to kill her family if she did not comply.
In a plea for leniency, Sarrazola’s lawyer showed the court threatening messages from Sergio and highlighted the fact she was to receive only a minuscule percentage of the drug’s value.
Sarrazola’s story gained worldwide media attention due to her high profile, after winning the Miss Antioquia beauty pageant in Colombia, and the fact she was likely to face the death penalty under China’s strict drug laws. Her lenient sentence has sparked some criticism from netizens, many of whom believe she got off too easy.
Sarrazola will be expelled from China at the conclusion of her sentence.
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