SET UP

U.S. Woman Freed From Mexican Prison

After arrested on drug-smuggling charges.

Yanira Maldonado was released from a Mexican prison Thursday night, days after Mexican soldiers found about 12 pounds of marijuana stashed under the seat she was sitting in on a bus from Mexico to Arizona. Initially it was Maldonado’s husband, Gary, who was arrested, but once she persuaded the soldiers to let her accompany her husband to serve as his translator, they decided to just arrest her and let him go. While Yanira sat in the Nogales jail, her husband and lawyer were both confident that a security video from the bus company proving that the pot had been stuck under the seat before the Maldonados—the only Americans on the bus—sat down, would exonerate her. And sure enough, court officials saw that the couple had only blankets, bottles of water, and a purse on them when they boarded—and Yanira was released hours later.