By Debbie Emery - Breaking Celebrity News Reporter

A beauty queen has become the latest victim of the war between Mexican drug traffickers and the military after she was caught in a deadly shootout.

Maria Susana Flores Gamez was found shot dead on Saturday lying near an assault rifle on a rural road in a mountainous area of the drug-plagued state of Sinaloa, revealed the chief state prosecutor according to a NBCLatino.com report.

"She was with the gang of criminals but we cannot say whether she participated in the shootout," said state prosecutor Marco Antonio Higuera, adding that it was unclear as to whether she had fired the high-powered weapon. "That's what we're going to have to investigate."

The beautiful 5'7" brunette had allegedly been traveling with the gang of cold-blooded criminals and the recent events in her life had been unfolding like the plot of a Quentin Tarantino movie.

In February, Flores Gamez was crowned the 2012 Woman Of Sinaloa, and then last June the model competed with seven other contestants for the more prestigious state beauty contest, Our Beauty Sinaloa, but didn’t win.

If she had, she would then have been eligible for the Miss Mexico title and then Miss Universe. Instead of heading towards potential global fame, Maria ended up hitting the road with the band of drug dealers and becoming embroiled in a lengthy car chase and