A 22-year-old Colombian model, also a soccer player and anchorwoman, was arrested after she was caught with a plastic bag full of drugs hidden inside her laptop in Guangzhou, south China's Guangdong province.

Juliana Lopez seemed to have the world at her feet, running a trendy boutique and hosting a television show, as well as being a well-known professional soccer player, according to China's popular website portal Sina quoting Western media reports.

Lopez, after winning the Miss Antioquia beauty pageant, was scheduled to participate in the Miss World Medellin competition this week but her family suddenly lost contact with her while she was in China to purchase items for her shop.

Worried about her whereabouts, her family contacted the Colombian embassy, saying that she had vanished. She had apparently flown into the airport in Guangzhou, and then they lost contact with her.

Chinese officials confirmed to the family she had been arrested for drug smuggling. It was not specified what kind of narcotics was inside her laptop but police said they had found a large quantity of a banned substance.

Lopez plays for the women's team Divas del Futbol in Medellin. She is also a student at the University of San Buenaventura, in the city of Bello, in the north central Colombian district of Antioquia.

Carrying drugs in China is not only banned, but also can incur a death penalty. Lopez's relatives and friends are now desperately trying to collect money to get top lawyers to defend Lopez.

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