Drug mule jailed for seven years

Laura Cilliers admitted smuggling heroin into Christchurch Airport. Photo / File / Martin Hunter

A South African drugs mule who smuggled $1 million worth of heroin into New Zealand has today been jailed for more than seven years.

Laura Elizabeth Cilliers, 32, left Cambodia bound for Christchurch via Singapore on June 14.

She had swallowed 99 triple-wrapped 3cm pellets of heroin before she left, but a court heard today that she "couldn't keep them down".

Cilliers, who was on the run from South African police over other drug matters, then hid 55 pellets in her luggage, another five in her bra, and the rest were "reinserted into other body cavities".

When she landed at Christchurch International Airport on June 15, Customs officers became suspicious of her after she looked unwell.

They found the class A drugs, and she underwent surgery to have one pellet removed from inside her.

Customs officials round around 1kg of the drug, with a street value of around $1million.

Cilliers originally told police that she acted under duress, saying her husband had been abducted and wouldn't be released unless she smuggled drugs for his captors.

She later admitted that was not true.

It has since been revealed that the bar worker's husband Sydney Cilliers, who she married in December, has been detained in Peru on drug smuggling charges.

Peruvian National Police said Mr Cilliers, 32, was arrested in May at Jorge Chavez Airport in Lima attempting to bring cocaine with him on a KLM flight bound for Amsterdam.

Today at Christchurch District Court, Crown prosecutor Pip Currie said that while Ms Cilliers was not the "mastermind" of the operation, she was still prepared to travel internationally with drugs inside her, and she would received a significant pay day if she had been successful.

Judge Gary MacAskill agreed she was not the mastermind but said she had been a "critical player".

She knowingly carried out a "very substantial" heroin importation, he said, and held a "relatively high position" in the distribution tree, for which she would have received a substantial financial reward.

Heroin is a dangerous and addictive substance and its importation causes a high level of harm to users and their families, Judge MacAskill said.

He jailed her for seven years and 10 months, but did not consider a minimum non-parole period was necessary.

Customs welcomed today's sentence with its manager of investigations, Maurice O'Brien, saying it showed drug smugglers they would get tough penalties in New Zealand.

"And that message will get through to the couriers and drug syndicates," Mr O'Brien said.

"We see some very imaginative efforts at concealing drugs, and Customs works hard to detect these and protect our communities at the border.

"Ms Cilliers is one of several foreign couriers intercepted by Customs officers this year trying to smuggle Class A drugs into New Zealand."

The maximum penalty for importing Class A controlled drugs into New Zealand is life imprisonment.