Han Ximin

A MOZAMBICAN woman was detained Sunday at Shenzhen International Airport for attempting to transport 1.4 kilograms of heroin into China.

This was the first drug-trafficking case uncovered by the entry-exit inspection authority at the Shenzhen airport since the airport opened in 1993.

The woman, whose name was not released, flew to Shenzhen from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, on Sunday on Shenzhen Airlines flight ZH9782.

While waiting in the immigration queue, she caught the attention of officers as she looked nervous. Her passport and visa were both valid, but when police officers asked her why she had come to China, she couldn’t provide her detailed itinerary or hotel.

When the police searched her, they found she was wearing unusually large sandals.

“The woman was wearing a pair of sandals thicker and heavier than ordinary ones,” police spokesman Zhang Yang said yesterday. “Police cut the sandals open to find heroin inside.”

A further inspection found another pair of sandals in her luggage, in which she was carrying more heroin. Police also found 400 grams of heroin inside a small bottle of lotion.

The 29-year-old woman, who was on her first trip to China, claimed a friend of her husband gave her two pairs of sandals and a bottle of lotion in Vietnam and asked her to give them to people in a Shenzhen hotel. She said she had no idea what was being transported.

The airport border police have busted 16 illegal immigration cases involving 30 people since the beginning of the year.