BUENOS AIRES, May 27, 2010 (AFP) - A former beauty queen and lingerie model has been arrested in the Argentine capital over international drug trafficking charges after months on the run from police, officials said.

Mother of Colombian model Angie Sanclemente Valencia, Janeth Valencia (C), speaks to the press after her daughter was arrested in Buenos Aires, Argentina

Colombian model Angie Sanclemente Valencia, 30, was expected in court Thursday 27 May accused of heading a smuggling operation that used fellow models to smuggle cocaine from Argentina to Europe, a police source told AFP.

After being captured at a hostel in the city's Palermo neighborhood, her mother Jeanette Valencia insisted to reporters that her daughter "(was) innocent and a victim of a conspiracy."

She had been on the run since December, when an warrant was issued for her arrest after a model smuggler involved in the operation was arrested en route to Europe via Cancun, Mexico, carrying some 57 kilograms (125 pounds) of cocaine.

Judicial officials here previously rejected a plea by her lawyer Guillermo Tiscornia for special treatment, saying she had not turned herself in to authorities because she was "afraid of being raped" in prison.

The model won Colombia's National Coffee Queen beauty pageant in 2000 at the age of 21 but was later disqualified after it was found she was married, violating pageant rules.