Ex- Miss England, 33, faces 20 years in a Mexican jail on drug charges

EXCLUSIVE: Ex-Miss England beauty queen, 33, faces 20 years in hellhole Mexican jail after being arrested for ‘trying to smuggle £250,000 worth of ketamine into Cancun airport’

• Jennifer Young didn’t tell her family about her imprisonment for months
• The ex-Miss England is awaiting her trial in a prison in Mexico City 
•  If convicted, drug smuggling can carry a 20-year sentence in Mexico

A former Miss England beauty queen is facing 20 years in a hellhole Mexican jail for suspected drug trafficking, MailOnline can reveal.

Jennifer Young was arrested trying to smuggle over £250,000 worth of ketamine into Cancun airport after arriving from Amsterdam in August last year.

The 33-year-old fashion model was allegedly found to have 13.080kg of the drug hidden in packets and bottles in a false bottom in her suitcase.

Young, a Miss Derby contestant when she was 17, spent months in an overcrowded jail in Cancun before being transferred to a prison close to the Mexico City in February.

She kept her family in the dark about her plight for over six months, telling her heartbroken mother Angela she was simply travelling around the country.

 Jennifer Young , 33, seen during her modelling days, was arrested in Mexico for allegedly trying to smuggle over £250,000 worth of ketamine into Cancun airport

Former Miss England beauty queen Young, who was born in Berlin, but grew up in Derby, is facing 20 years in a hellhole Mexican jail as she goes in trial there for drug trafficking

Young was allegedly found to have 13.080kg of party drug ketamine hidden in packets (pictured) and bottles in a false bottom in her suitcase

However, Angela finally learned the truth just five weeks ago when her only daughter failed to phone her to wish her happy birthday.

Speaking to MailOnline from her home in Derby, Angela told MailOnline: ‘I’m still in shock. I knew Jenny was in Mexico but I thought she was travelling. I’ve only just found out Jenny is in prison. 

‘My birthday is in March and wherever in the world Jenny is she calls me. But she didn’t get in touch and I started to worry.

‘Then I got a message from her friend. I asked him where she was. After a lot of messages, he finally told me that she was in jail. I couldn’t believe it.

‘Then I found out the whole story. That she had been in jail in Cancun for months. It was horribly over-crowded. I don’t know how many people were in her cell, but it was terrible.

‘But in February she was moved to another prison outside Mexico City. She has been charged with drug trafficking but she hasn’t been put on trial yet. She could get a 20-year sentence. I’m so worried.’

Young, who was born in Germany to a British mother and German father, has spent much of her life working abroad as a model and a tour guide, after leaving her hometown of Derby aged 19.

In an online tour guide blog she wrote last year, she wrote: ‘I’m Jenny, a born Berliner but also half English and speak both languages fluently.In my 32 years on this planet I’ve travelled the globe extensively.

‘It’s my passion and I love it but I always find myself magnetised back to my favourite place – Bangkok.

Fresh faced Young was a Miss England contestant for Derby when she was 17 back in 2007

Young’s mother Angela told MailOnline that she is heartbroken that her daughter is incarcerated in Mexico and said she only recently learned that she was in jail awaiting trial 

‘I’ve lived in many places including Asia, Australia, Canada, etc and have explored around 40 countries so far. I’m a model and study natural healing.’

She added: ‘My greatest loves are music, health eating, yoga, nature and meeting cool new people!’

Throughout her incarceration Jenny has received visits from the British Consul to Mexico. She is expected to meet with a lawyer this week to discuss her trial.

Angela added: ‘The British consulate went to see her last Wednesday. She is fine now she has a cell to herself. It’s much better than the other place.

‘Prisoners are allowed to have visits from family members. Relatives bring in food and other things. 

‘Jenny says she gets three meals a day but they are very small portions. She is waiting for the lawyer to see her.

‘She had been calling me before, but didn’t say she was in trouble.

‘She has been phoning me from the jail. She only gets five minutes and I don’t know who is listening in, so she hasn’t talked about what happened, it’s like, ‘I love you, speak to you soon’.

Young’s mother said her daughter, who was born in Berlin, told her that she had been travelling in Mexico and she only discovered the truth when she didn’t phone her mother on her birthday

‘I’m still coming to terms with what happened. I find sleeping difficult, but it’s not about me.

‘It’s about how Jenny is going to get through all this,’ she added.

Young faces up a sentence of up to 20 years if she is convicted of drug smuggling – one of the most serious crimes in Mexico.

A Foreign Office spokeswoman last night confirmed the British Consul in Mexico is providing assistance to a British national in Cancun and her family in the UK.

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