Three playmates attending Playboy Music Fest in Merida, Mexico, were arrested Friday by Mexican immigration officials who believed the women were working in the country without proper visas.

Elif Celik of Turkey, Lauryn Elaine of the U.S. and Marie Brethenoux of France had tourist visas that would not allow them to do paid work in Mexico.

They were guests at the festival and were not paid to be there, according to a statement released in by Playboy Mexico following the event. Playboy Mexico called the incident a misunderstanding and said it regretted the treatment that the women received.

“They are not bunnies, they are WARRIORS, and we love them,” the organization wrote on its Instagram account after the women were released.


Elaine told Fox News that the three were taken around midnight while they were sitting at a VIP table drinking champagne and that they had to “beg for food and water” while they were detained in a holding cell for about a day.

A Mexican immigration official confirmed to local media that the women had been detained but denied that they had been treated poorly by officers.

Brethenoux posted an image to her Instagram account of the three women in orange dresses holding their wrists as if handcuffed, saying, “Even after detention in Merida nothing can stop us! Bunnies warriors.”


Salvador Avila, a photographer, posted another photo of the women similarly posed with the caption, “Orange is the new Black.”

The party was held at La Hacienda Chichí Suárez, which, according to its website, was built in the 1500s and can hold events for up to 4,000 people.


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kate.morrissey@sduniontribune.com, @bgirledukate on Twitter