New Zealand woman convicted of smuggling heroin into Australia

A New Zealand woman convicted of attempting to smuggle 9 kilogrammes of methamphetamines and heroin into Australia faces up to three years in jail, news reports said Friday according to dpa. Bernadine Prince, 41, was found guilty by a court in Darwin of importing a commercial quantity of a border-controlled substance. She was arrested at Darwin airport in May after drugs with a street value of 2 million Australian dollars (1.75 million US dollars) were found concealed in seven otherwise empty backpacks in her luggage. Prince, a Christian evangelist who lives in Cambodia and is married to a Nigerian minister, denied the charges. She told police the bags were from Kenya and were to sell in Australia to fund her missionary work, according to national broadcaster ABC.