Yanira Maldonado, an Arizona housewife and devout Mormon, has been held in a Nogales, Mexico prison since last week on charges of drug smuggling. She has since been granted an interview, where she pleads her innocence.

Maldonado, 42, was traveling with her husband back to their home in Phoenix when their charter bus was pulled over by Mexican soldiers at a checkpoint just south of the border. It was then that Maldonado received quite the surprise.

"I was at the checkpoint. They asked us to get off bus. And they were checking for drugs or I don't know what else," she said. "And they say they found something under my seat. But I never saw anything. They didn't show me anything. It was just amazing all that, what they did."

What the authorities ended up finding was roughly 12 pounds of marijuana in multiple packages under Maldonado's seat. Upon finding the illicit substances, Maldonado was immediately arrested on charges of drug smuggling.

"I was in shock. I'm like this is not real. This is not happening. I don't know. I thought maybe this was a set-up or a joke or something. I was just waiting for it to end but I realized that it's real, that I'm being detained."

The mother of seven is now facing trial for the drug smuggling charges, and if convicted, she could spend up to 10 years in prison. She was recently granted an interview from the prison she is being held at, and has pleaded for help so that she may be reunited with her family.

"I'm a good mom. I love the gospel. I'm LDS (Latter Day Saint's, a Mormon church). And we work hard to have what we have. You know, we're not rich, but we're very honest and we always do our best to help other people," she said.

Maldonado's family has accused the Mexican authorities of setting her up. At the very least, they believe that she was the victim of a drug smuggling operation's plan to stow away marijuana on the bus.

The court of public opinion in America is certainly on Maldonado's side. Experts have already noted that it would be highly unlikely that one woman could single-handedly bring that much marijuana onto the bus without being noticed. U.S. authorities are now getting involved in efforts to assist Maldonado.

"Arrest cases are not uncommon in Mexico," said Elizabeth A. Finan, a spokeswoman for the State Department's Bureau of Consular Affairs, "and our consular officers work hard to assist all U.S. citizens who come to us for help."