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More than 10kg of cocaine was used to make suitcases in an attempt to smuggle the drugs into Shanghai recently. Photo: Handout

Drug mule caught in China ‘built suitcases out of 10kg of cocaine’

The abnormally heavy luggage initially passed Shanghai customs’ X-ray inspection

Drug mules are getting more creative in finding ways to smuggle drugs into China.

A woman was recently foiled in her brazen attempt to bring 10kg of cocaine into the country – not by hiding the narcotics in her luggage or on her body, but by building an entire suitcase using the drug.

Shanghai customs revealed on Tuesday that the Southeast Asian woman was arrested after she arrived at the Shanghai Pudong International Airport from South America on February 15.

The woman did not declare any items and her belongings initially passed through the x-ray machine, according to Chinese news portal Kankanews.com.

However, customs officials found the colour tone of the x-ray images of her two suitcases abnormally deep.

Part of one of the suitcases seized from the woman at the Shanghai airport. Photo: Handout

When they asked her to remove her belongings from the suitcases for checks, officers found the empty luggage much heavier than normal ones, the report said. A young officer could not even lift the empty luggage with one hand.

Their suspicions aroused, the customs officials then took samples of the suitcase material for testing. The tests quickly revealed the strong presence of cocaine, according to the report.

A total of 10.19kg of the drug was derived from the suitcases, which were built with a mix of cocaine and other materials.

This is the first case in China of narcotics seized from smugglers using this method to smuggle drugs into the country, the report said.

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