July 14, 2011 - 9:15AM
No laughing matter ... Belgica Nataly Suarez has been found not guilty. Photo: AFP
A judge has found a former beauty queen not guilty of money laundering despite having failed to declare $US47,000 ($43,700) worth of cash at a border crossing in Latin America.
Police said 25-year-old Miss Honduras Belgica Nataly Suarez was arrested with euros and British pounds on a Honduran highway near the Nicaraguan border after she did not declare the money while crossing the border from Nicaragua in July.
But Judge Allan Rodriguez ruled in Honduras on Tuesday that there was not enough evidence to convict the 2009 beauty queen of a crime.
Pointy end of the law ... Former Miss Honduras, Belgica Nataly Suarez, was shackled in court. Photo: AFP
Special services police spokesman Alex Madrid said 25-year-old Suarez failed to declare the money when she crossed the border from the city of Esteli in Nicaragua.
"She claimed she had earned the money working as a model in Europe," Madrid told The Associated Press.
Suarez appeared calm in court, local newspapers reported, and was dressed in a black and white suit with denim stilettos. A judge ordered that she was handcuffed and her feet shackled during prison transfers.
Not guilty ... Former Miss Honduras, Belgica Nataly Suarez. Photo: AFP
After her release, Suarez told the La Prensa newspaper that "God was her judge" and that she had not known it was illegal to carry more than $US10,000 in cash.
According to Honduran law, travellers must declare to customs that they are carrying more than $US10,000.
Suarez was arrested along with a Nicaraguan driver.
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