Yanira Maldonado, who was charged with smuggling drugs in Mexico, is reuniting with her family after a week in jail. She was released shortly before midnight. NBC's Miguel Almaguer reports.
By Erika Angulo, Gil Aegerter and Erin McClam, NBC News
Yanira Maldonado, the Arizona mother held nine days in Mexico on suspicion of drug smuggling, was back on American soil Friday after she was released from jail and into the arms of her husband.
?I?m free. I?m free. I?m free,? she said, beaming. ?I was innocent.?
Maldonado, 42, was in Mexico with her husband for a funeral and was detained May 22. Soldiers said they had found 12 pounds of marijuana taped under her seat on a bus that she was taking back to the United States.
She was released after court officials reviewed security footage, also seen by NBC News, that showed the couple boarding the bus carrying only blankets, bottles of water and her purse.
With a shrug, she told reporters Friday in Arizona: ?Someone smuggled those in there, and I probably sat in the wrong seat.?
Maldonado, who was born in Mexico and is a naturalized American citizen, shared a long embrace with her husband, Gary, thanked her lawyers and was driven back across the border. She said that she would return to Mexico, but not for some time.
Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake posted on Twitter late Thursday that the U.S. consul general had confirmed Maldonado?s release.
Maldonado and her family had proclaimed her innocence ahead of her release.
?I just want to be back home right now with my family, my kids and my husband,?? Maldonado told Miguel Almaguer in an interview that aired Thursday morning on TODAY.
"I wanted to find a way out, and I?m telling them I?m innocent, I?m innocent. I keep saying what happened, and I?m still here, so I just have faith in the Lord.?
As Arizona mom of seven Yanira Maldonado's court hearing on drug smuggling charges begins in Nogales, Mexico, she is speaking out for the first time, saying her "spirit is good," but she just wants "to go home." NBC's Miguel Almaguer reports.
Maldonado and her husband were married a year ago. She said before her released that she believed she may have been set up at the military checkpoint, where soldiers initially accused her husband of smuggling the marijuana before detaining her instead.
Soldiers staffing a checkpoint stopped the bus in Hermosillo, about 170 miles from the U.S. border.
NBC News' Alastair Jamieson contributed to this report.
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This story was originally published on Fri May 31, 2013 4:56 AM EDT
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