British Actress Charged in Australia for Methamphetamine Smuggling

Sydney. A British actress, who has acted in a spin-off of the popular British drama 'EastEnders' and in a Jason Statham film, has been charged with attempting to smuggle nearly 320 kg of the banned drug 'methamphetamine' into Australia from West Africa.

The 34-year-old actress, Emma Hussein, was produced in a Sydney court on Thursday on charges of attempting to import commercial quantities of drugs. If convicted, she faces a potential life sentence.

According to police, Hussein, in collaboration with a couple from South Australia, attempted to bring the drugs into Australia hidden in bags of coal inside a shipping container that arrived from Ghana. The market value of the seized drugs is estimated to be around 296 million Australian dollars (approximately 200 million US dollars). The court has refused to grant Hussein bail, and she is scheduled to appear in court again in August.

Hussein played the character Naz in 'E20', a spin-off of EastEnders that first aired in 2010. She also appeared in Jason Statham's 2013 action thriller film 'Hummingbird', which was released in the US under the name 'Redemption'.

In April, police began investigating after Australian border security officers noticed suspicious items in two shipping containers that had arrived from Ghana at Port Botany. Upon X-raying the items, listed as bags of coal, officers discovered a white, crystalline substance, which was later confirmed to be methamphetamine in laboratory tests.

Police had already removed the drugs from the shipment before it was delivered to a storage facility in the Sydney western suburb of Girraween. Police claim that actress Hussein herself went to the storage facility, supervised the unloading of the container's contents, and oversaw the process.

They loaded several bags into a car and transported them to a house in Blacktown, where police arrested Hussein. During the arrest, police also seized electronic devices and a notepad.

As part of the same investigation, police also arrested and charged a 30-year-old woman and a 32-year-old man from Adelaide, the capital of South Australia. They are accused of using fake identification to rent the storage facility where the drug delivery was made in Sydney.

Acting Detective Superintendent Trevor Robinson of the Australian Federal Police stated that the seizure of the estimated drugs has prevented potential drug trafficking on Australian streets.

BBC