The woman was reported by AFP to be Adelina Ntshebleng Lephutha Ononiwu, 31. Initial reports suggested she was a South African, but Department of International Relations spokesman Clayson Monyela said yesterday the government was still verifying her nationality.

"The South African ambassador to Thailand, Ruby Marks, is checking her citizenship and her passport," he said, adding that he would only be able to confirm her nationality this afternoon.

AFP reported that Ononiwu was on her way from Kenya to Cambodia and had stopped over in Thailand . Police allegedly found the drug, known as tik in SA, in secret compartments of her suitcases after receiving a tip-off. T he drugs had a street value of about R660000 .

Colonel Pornchai Charoenwong, of Thailand's Narcotic Suppression Bureau, told AFP the woman had started her journey in Benin, West Africa. "She said she was hired by a Nigerian man to deliver the luggage to Phnom Penh [the capital of Cambodia]," he said. She was charged with drug trafficking.

On Monday, Nobanda, from Grahamstown, was sentenced to 15 years in prison and fined R250000 for smuggling cocaine in her dreadlocks.