Chennai, Sep 5 (IANS) A 35-year-old Vietnamese woman was remanded to judicial custody Friday evening for possessing 3 kg of refined heroin worth over Rs.

35 million, customs officials said.

Identified as D. Thanthipay, the woman had arrived by a scheduled flight from Colombo and was on her way to Bangkok.

Acting on a tip-off, officials inspected her luggage and found the contraband drugs in the false bottom of her luggage.

'In recent times, this is the first instance of heroin being smuggled from Colombo via Chennai. Since the suspect is unable to converse in any language other than Vietnamese, she has been sent to judicial custody. However, when interpreters are found to decipher her speech, she will be interrogated,' customs sources added.

During the last 8 months drugs worth over Rs.300 million have been seized at the Anna International air terminal from foreign nationals bound for either Kuala Lumpur or Bangkok.

Since April after the seizure of 10 kg of Ketamine and 2 kg of heroin, the incidents had lessened only to surface a little over four months later, customs sources added.