A former Bolivian beauty queen was arrested after being allegedly caught transporting a $2.3 million shipment of cocaine in Argentina.
Jade Callaú, 21, and her boyfriend pilot, Brazilian national Carlos Díaz, 52, were captured January 23 after their Cessna 210 landed in Ibicuy, a rural town in the northeastern province of Entre Ríos.
Authorities found about 791 pounds, or 359 kilos, of cocaine split among 352 packages allegedly inside the aircraft.
Entre Ríos Security Minister, Nestor Roncaglia, told Argentine newspaper Clarín that the couple took off from Bolivia and flew about 932 miles when they noticed they were running out of fuel and made the emergency landing.
He believes that they may have been traveling to the province of Buenos Aires because they were about 10 minutes from entering its airspace.
Roncaglia said that investigators were looking into whether Callaú is the daughter of a Bolivian drug trafficker.
However, it has been revealed that she is related to Jorge Granier, who was arrested in Brazil in March 2023 and later extradited to Argentina, where he is facing drug trafficking charges, including providing planes to local drug traffickers.
Callaú, who was crowned Miss FexpoBorja in 2019, attempted to thwart their arrest by telling cops that she was pregnant and needed to be taken to a hospital as a precaution, Roncaglia said.
After cops discovered the massive shipment, she allegedly attempted to bribe the officers with $60,000.
Although she did not have all the cash available on hand, Callaú promised that someone could wire it to them.
Callaú’s mother, Patricia Barriga, told Clarín that she runs a warehouse and that her husband, Luis Callaú, is a cattle herder.
She assured the newspaper that Callaú has never been linked to drug trafficking.
‘We work all day, from very early, to be able to help our children. We have four, three girls and one boy, who is the oldest,’ she said.
‘Jade lives with her sister Diana in Trinidad, a university city, where they both live in a two-room apartment that my husband and I pay the rent for.’
Barriga recalled last talking to Callaú on January 20 and never sensed her daughter was involved in illegal dealings.
“I don’t know what could have happened to her, but she was probably confused or deceived,” the distraught mother said. “Obviously, if that was the case, she made a bad decision, but Jade is a simple, humble, friendly girl.
“The truth is that I found out about this on the news on television and I couldn’t believe it,” Barriga added. “What I am convinced of is that Jade is not involved in the world of drug trafficking, as they say in Argentina… This is the first time.”