( CNN ) -- From her very humble beginnings in Barranquilla , Colombia , she rose to be one of her country 's most coveted beauty queens . At 21 , Angie Sanclemente Valencia was crowned as Colombia 's `` Queen of Coffee . '' It was 2000 and the beginning of a career that would propel Sanclemente into the world of her dreams as an internationally acclaimed model . After winning the Colombian pageant , she quickly found work as a lingerie model in Mexico and other countries . She also started training as an actress and took theater lessons . But Sanclemente 's career came to a screeching halt in May of 2010 when she was arrested in Argentina and charged with drug trafficking . Interpol had issued an arrest warrant against her in December of the previous year 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 55 kilograms of cocaine ( 120 pounds ) . The fallen beauty was on the run for five months , hiding in Argentina . While on the run , Sanclemente continued to update her Facebook page . In a Facebook message to CNN in 2010 , she denied any involvement in the case , writing , `` I 'm very sad and hurt by the bad information . I do n't know how the press can destroy an innocent person . '' After being convicted in early November , Sanclemente is speaking from prison for the first time . It 's quite a change from the life of glamor she lived before her arrest . `` I have been here [ in prison ] one year and seven months . I 'm innocent of all of the accusations . It was all a big misunderstanding , '' Sanclemente said . Her 2010 arrest was an international scandal and her Interpol mugshot made headlines around the world . The former queen of coffee became known as `` the queen of cocaine . '' Four men and two other women were also arrested in connection with the case . Argentinian authorities charged her with leading a ring of fashion models to smuggle cocaine from South America and into Europe , via Cancun . She says her Argentinian boyfriend and his uncle , who are also in prison , were indeed involved in drug trafficking , but not her . `` It may sound ridiculous and incredible , but I 'm innocent of this farce they invented . My boyfriend made a mistake , and I 'm paying the consequences . But I love him and I love him because he loves me just the way I am . I never found in anybody else what I found in him , '' Sanclemente said . Now 32 and sentenced to six years and eight months behind bars , the promising career she once had seems like a vanished dream . Nicolas Gualco , her boyfriend , and Daniel Monroy , Gualco 's uncle , have also received the same sentence . Moving to Argentina from Mexico , Sanclemente says in retrospect , was a big mistake . `` I regret having taken the flight to Argentina , to be honest with you . '' Sanclemente had expressed regret once before about making the wrong choices . She was dethroned as Colombia 's queen of coffee for breaking the rules by having been married . Reports say that she was once married to a Mexican drug trafficker , but she 's always denied that was the case . In an interview shortly after being dethroned , she spoke about 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 , '' Sanclemente says . Her words now seem prophetic . Journalist Jose Manuel Rodriguez in Buenos Aires contributed to this report .
María de Valencia says she is innocent . The Colombian native was convicted for drug trafficking . She was once an internationally known model .