A Spanish woman has been arrested at Dubai airport while allegedly trying to smuggle 3.2 kilos of heroin. Maria D.J. Fernandes, 35, arrived from Pakistan en route to Spain. A police spokesman said Anti-Narcotics officers searched her suitcase and found the drugs in hidden compartments.

She reportedly admitted possessing the drugs and told police that she became an addict after her divorce and had been offered money to act as a courier by a drug dealer in Spain.

"The drug dealer had asked her to smuggle half a kilo of cocaine from Pakistan to Spain via Dubai and South Africa for about Dh200,000, a ticket and $1,000 pocket money," the police spokesman said. "On March 13 she left Barcelona for Johannesburg where she met a member of the gang who supplied her with information to continue on to Pakistan.

"At Peshawar she met an African who gave her the suitcase. She packed her own belongings in it and left for Dubai where she was to phone a person in Johannesburg to receive further instructions." He said she believed the drug she was smuggling was cocaine but, in fact, it was heroin. Fernandes is charged with smuggling and possessing drugs.