Chinese drug mule facing death penalty in Malaysia trial could be latest victim of trafficking ring
Defendant’s story that she was duped into carrying meth by gang operating out of Guangdong province mirrors that of 20 other young women
A Chinese woman is going on trial on drug trafficking charges that could carry the death penalty next month in Malaysia, according to a newspaper report.
Zhao Han, 27, from Sichuan province, was arrested at Kuala Lumpur airport in August 2015 carrying a suitcase that was allegedly filled with 3.3 kilograms (7lb) of methamphetamine in a hidden layer of the suitcase, Beijing News reported.
Zhao insists she is innocent and says she was duped into carrying what she thought was a suitcase full of clothes that she had collected in the southern province of Guangdong before catching a flight from Hong Kong.
She also took police to the place where the case was to be delivered, but the contact had apparently received a tip-off and had disappeared.
Statistics quoted in the report from the Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA) said that more than 20 Chinese women have been arrested or convicted for bringing drugs into Malaysia between 2013 and 2015 – all of whom claimed to have been duped by a smuggling ring operating in Guangdong.