She began her life as a teacher and went on to become one of Mexico's top union bosses, living a life of luxury.

But that all came to an end on Tuesday evening when Elba Esther Gordillo, 68, was whisked away by cops in Mexico City the moment she got off her private plane.

The plane was one of many amenities she enjoyed since becoming the National Education Workers Union leader - and one of Mexico's most powerful women - in 1989.

The 1.5 million-member teachers' union is considered one of the most powerful unions in Latin America.

Gordillo allegedly embezzled about US$160 million (S$198 million) from the union's funds to fund a lavish lifestyle.

Critics have accused her of amassing more than a dozen properties worth millions of dollars.

The newspaper Reforma once reported her carrying a US$5,500 purse and wearing a US$1,200 pair of shoes.

She has acknowledged some of the wealth, saying part was inherited and part was earned through her job, which paid her about 80,000 pesos (S$7,750) a month, AP reported.

Multimillion-dollar houses

Mexican prosecutors said Comercializadora TTS SA de CV, a company registered to her dead mother's estate, owns two multimillion-dollar houses in Coronado, California.

The two properties sit across the street from each other in a gated community.

One was bought in 1991 for US$1.2 million and is worth $4.7 million now. The other, bought in 2010, is currently assessed at US$4.1 million.

Neighbour Lothar Kramer, 85, who has lived there since 1985, said he rarely saw anyone there and didn't know who owned it.

The area has been home to numerous celebrities and politicians, including former US Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich and singer Donny Osmond.

Prosecutors also said they had detected nearly US$3million of union funds used in purchases at Neiman Marcus, an American luxury speciality department store, as well as US$17,000 in US plastic surgery bills.

In addition, US$2 million of union money made it into accounts in Switzerland and Liechtenstein.

Gordillo spent the night in a Mexico City jail before appearing in court on Wednesday, where she was read the charges of "operations with resources of illicit origin" and "organised crime", reported The Guardian.

Her career had began humbly as a teenage schoolteacher in the impoverished Chiapas state in Mexico before she rose to power.

Her arrest came a day after the enactment of the country's most sweeping educational reform in more than 70 years. Gordillo was heading the union's fight with President Enrique Pena Nieto's administration over the reforms.

According to BBC, the reforms are designed to change a union-dominated system in which teaching positions could be sold or inherited.

Under the changes, teachers would have to undergo regular assessments, something that has never taken place in Mexico's primary and secondary schools.

Mexico's new government has denied that politics was the motivation behind her arrest.

In a news conference minutes after Gordillo's detention, Mexico's Attorney General Jesus Murillo Karamhe said the investigation started in December, just after MrPena Nieto took office, when authorities were alerted to the transfer of billions of pesos.

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