A Colombian model is facing the death penalty after being arrested on suspicion of smuggling drugs into China. Beauty pageant winner, Juliana Lopez was reportedly caught with psych-active drugs hidden inside her laptop when she was arrested in Guangzhou airport July 18th. The 22 year old now faces life in prison or execution if found guilty. After winning the Antioquia beauty pageant, Juliana was set to participate in the Miss World Medellin competition this week but contact with her was lost when she arrived in China. Chinese officials later confirmed with her family that she had been arrested for drug smuggling, however while they were able to state that a large quantity of a banned substance had been found, they declined to say what the actual drug was. Carrying drugs in China is not only illegal but has the potential to incur the death penalty if found guilty. Friends and family of Juliana are now desperately trying to raise money in order to hire a top lawyer to help her come home. ~~~ Sources: mirror
^ Columbian... could have been forced to. Whatever this girls reasons... the fact that she's so young and could be facing death, well that is just sad
To be honest, the story here is sufficiently vague but purposefully suggestive in using inflammatory key words and historical associations that the reader then puts together a supposition that may have nothing to do with the actual course of events. One only has to mention "Colombia" and it's an automatic association with cocaine. But in fact, the article only states that a "psychoactive drug... and or ...banned substance" was found. And that could amount to just about anything from a prescription sedative, psychotropics or even a few loose joints. The article's further mention of the death penalty heightens the drama but China's death penalty is only invoked when drugs carried exceeds a certain amount. Given that the contraband was found within her laptop, I doubt it would have been much as Laptops are notoriously short on any physical space. IMHO, this story was just a lot of pumped up fluff on a slow news day, spiced up further by her sexy pics.