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Policeman reveals the drugs allegedly found inside a backpack belonging to Sydney grandmother Maria Elvira Pinto Exposto. Picture: Supplied. Source: Supplied
A SECOND Australian woman faces the death penalty after the arrest of a 71-year-old in Vietnam on suspicion of heroin trafficking.
The woman, born in Vietnam, was detained in Ho Chi Minh City with 2.8 kilograms of heroin allegedly hidden in 36 soap cases in her check-in luggage at the city’s Tan Son Nhut Airport on Sunday before she was about to board a flight to Sydney.
It comes as a Sydney grandmother caught with methamphetamine in Malaysia has had her bag containing the drugs paraded by customs officials.
MARIA PINTO EXPOSTO: Arrested over 1.5kg of ice in Kulala Lumpar
Detained for heroin trafficking ... The 71-year-old Australian citizen was caught with 2.8 kilograms of heroin hidden in her luggage at Ho Chi Minh City's international airport as she boarded a flight bound for Sydney. Picture: Web grab / VinExpress Source: Supplied
SENTENCED TO DEATH: Australian heroin smuggler
Maria Elvira Pinto Exposto, 51, was found with 1.5kg of methamphetamine — more commonly known as ice — last week while travelling through Kuala Lumpur’s international airport.
Customs officials on Monday said it remained unclear whether the drugs — worth about $90,000 — were destined for either Kuala Lumpur or Melbourne, where Pinto Exposto’s main flight was bound.
The backpack, which her lawyers claim she volunteered for checking at the airport, was found to include men’s clothing and the drugs which were located in a specially stitched compartment.
Scheduled before court on Friday ... mSydney grandmother Maria Elvira Pinto Exposto allegedly had 1.5kg of ice in her luggage. Picture: Supplied. Source: Supplied
The airport’s customs chief Omar Chik Lim said Pinto Exposto, a mother of four and grandmother, remained in police custody at a female detention centre and was in a “good condition.â€
Her lawyer Muhammed Shafee Abdullah on Sunday told reporters his client had been duped.
“There is a very strong chance that she is one of those naive and innocent mules that has been used by some unscrupulous people,†he said.
Customs officers at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport have arrested 22 people for drugs offences already this year and of them, seven people, arrived on flights from China.
Pinto Exposto, who lives in Liverpool in Sydney’s southwest, is not permitted to have any visitors, until she is charged. That could come as quickly as Friday, when she is next due to face court.