Customs authorities in Sri Lanka arrested a woman on Friday and seized the largest cocaine ever found at the country's major international airports, an official said.
Customs Director Seevali Arukgoda said the unnamed 38-year-old Thai woman loaded nearly 10 kilograms (22 pounds) of cocaine stuffed into three plush toys.
"This is the biggest attempt to smuggle cocaine, which was stopped by Sri Lankan customs at the airport," Arukgoda said in a statement.
Customs officials at Bandaranaike International Airport took a photo with cocaine, which has neatly stuffed into more than 500 plastic capsules, with an estimated street value of $1.72 million.
The seizure was three other drags this month, totaling nearly 60 kilograms of synthetic marijuana.
Three foreign nationals from the UK, India and Thailand were arrested in different cases.
British, identified as Charlotte May LeeCourt officials said the 21-year-old was a former flight attendant in London, giving birth in front of a sheriff on Friday and further detained until June 13.
She was arrested on May 12 when officials found her two suitcases filled with 46 kilograms of Kush, a synthetic drug.
Lee told the BBC that she had renewed her Thai visa from Bangkok to Sri Lanka's capital Colombo. She described her living conditions in prison in Negombo, a city north of the capital, saying she spent most of her time inside, although she did go outside to enjoy the fresh air.
"I've never been to jail and never to Sri Lanka," she told the BBC. "This heat has been sitting on the concrete floor."
All four suspects, including the Thai woman arrested on Friday, could face life imprisonment if convicted.
Sri Lankan authorities have previously occupied a large amount of heroin on the country's coast, suggesting that the island is used as a transit center for narcotics traveling elsewhere.
In October, a Sri Lankan court sentenced 10 Iranian men to life imprisonment after pleading guilty to pleading guilty to more than 111 kilograms of heroin. In 2023, nine Iranians were sentenced to life imprisonment in another drug smuggling case.
The largest seizure of narcotic seizure in Sri Lanka occurred in December 2016, when customs found 800 kilograms (1,760 pounds) of cocaine in a wood container sent to a company in neighbouring India.