Canadian teenager jailed for smuggling drugs into NZ

WELLINGTON - A Canadian teenager has been jailed for nine years for importing illegal drugs worth almost 2 million NZ dollars ($1.52 million) into New Zealand.

Kionie Downing, 19, was sentenced at the Auckland District Court for importing and possessing methamphetamine, New Zealand Customs said in a statement Tuesday.

Customs officers arrested her in August last year after they intercepted a package sent to her from Canada of four containers of muscle-building supplements, which had drugs hidden inside.

Officers also searched the Auckland hostel where Downing was staying and found digital scales, drug paraphernalia and more than 4,000 NZ dollars ($3,052) in cash amongst her possessions.

The cash had been seized and the drugs would be destroyed.

Customs manager Maurice O'Brien said customs had systems and technology in place to identify consignments containing illicit substances.

"Four health supplement bottles of methamphetamine may not sound like much, but the street value and potential harm of these drugs is immense," O'Brien said in the statement.