Australia sentences grandmother to 6 years for trafficking heroin in underpants

A grandmother caught carrying heroin into Australia in her underwear was sentenced to six years' prison Thursday for drug trafficking.

Photo: Australia sentences grandmother to 6 years for trafficking heroin in underpants

Fawzieh Nona Danial, 58, told officials she did not know what was in the four packets that customs officers found stuffed into her underwear when they searched her at Sydney Airport on March 24 last year, as she arrived from Vietnam.

It was 239 grams (8.43 ounces) of heroin.

Danial, who is Iraqi-born and was traveling on a New Zealand passport, said she had accepted the parcels from a Vietnamese woman who offered her 25,000 Australian dollars (US$19,600; Ђ15,100) to take them to Australia.

She pleaded guilty to trafficking charges, and told officers she was sorry "for doing this stupid thing."

District Court Judge Christopher Geraghty said he took note of Danial's age and clean legal record, but said that the drugs' potential damage to families required a prison term, reports AP.

Danial was sentenced to six years in prison, but will be eligible for parole in four.

She was surrounded by family members as the sentence was read out. Several of them broke into tears.