Kuala Lumpur, September 11: Malaysian police have detained a Thai woman for allegedly trying to smuggle capsules filled with cocaine valued at 600,000 ringgit (171,430 dollars), news reports said Friday.
The suspect, who was detained with a Filipino man Tuesday night at a budget hotel, was thought to be on her way to Bangkok, the New Straits Times daily reported.
The woman had come from Brazil where she was forced to swallow the cocaine by a Nigerian man, Kuala Lumpur narcotics chief Kang Chez Chiang said.
“She entered Malaysia via Singapore,” Kang said.
He added that police initially obtained 31 capsules from the woman but doctors at a local hospital later extracted another 31.
The suspect is the third foreign woman in a fortnight to be arrested as a courier for an international drug ring.
Malaysia’s tough drug laws prescribe a mandatory death sentence for those found guilty of trafficking in most types of drugs.
–Agencies