AN INDONESIAN woman decided to try her luck by smuggling in packets of Subtuex tablets in a recycled biscuit tin.

But her brazen attempt did not get pass the security checks by the Immigration & Checkpoints Authority (ICA) officers at the Singapore Cruise Centre on Thursday afternoon.

The X-ray screening officer spotted something odd when the woman's biscuit tin was scanned - instead of images of biscuits, the officer saw silhouettes of capsules.

After opening the tin, the officer found three packets of white tablets wrapped tightly together and labelled as 'Subutex'.

Subutex was introduced as a replacement drug mainly to heroin addicts in 2002 but it was banned later in August 2006.

A total of 210 Subutex tablets, packaged into three slabs of seven tablets each, were found.

The 27-year-old Indonesian woman claimed that her father had bought the tablets from a private clinic in Batam and told her to bring the tablets to her grandmother who was living in Singapore.

She also said that her grandmother needed the tablets as she was suffering from back pain.

The case was referred to the Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) for further investigations.

If convicted, the woman faces a minimum sentence of five years' jail.

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