MELBOURNE: A Malaysian woman faces a drug smuggling charge after allegedly concealing 19 packages of heroin inside her body, police said.The 32-year-old was stopped by Customs and Border Protection officers at Sydney Airport on Sunday after arriving on a flight from Kuala Lumpur.

“During questioning, the woman admitted concealing drugs internally,” the Australian Federal Police (AFP) said in a statement.

“It will be alleged that the woman was concealing 19 packages that contained a marketable quantity of what is believed to be heroin,” it said, adding that the packages would undergo forensic testing to determine their exact weight and purity. The woman was charged at a bedside court hearing with importing a marketable quantity of a border controlled drug.

However, an AFP spokesman could not say why the woman had been admitted to hospital, the Australian Associated Press reported. She has been remanded to reappear in the Sydney Central Local Court on Nov 25. — Bernama