MEXICO CITY – Mexican singer Jenny Rivera was arrested at the Mexico City airport for allegedly trying to hide the fact that she was taking $52,167 in cash out of the country when she was preparing to travel to the United States, the Attorney General’s Office said.

The artist, whose real name is Dolores Rivera, was arrested Monday when she was getting ready to board a commercial flight to Los Angeles, California, the AG’s office said.

She declared to customs officials that she was taking $20,000 in cash with her but “upon examining her handbag $52,167 was found inside it,” the AG’s office said.

The singer known as “La Diva de la Banda” was subjected to a random search of her hand-carried luggage along with other passengers in the waiting room for international flights in Terminal 1 of the Mexico City International Airport.

Rivera had appeared Sunday night on a television program.

The performer of “grupero” music and the cash authorities found were placed at the disposition of the Public Ministry, which started a preliminary investigation, and the AG’s office said that if the customs search was properly done and legal “criminal action will be taken” against her. EFE