The pain of a package of cocaine hidden inside her private parts gave a woman away after she removed it and placed it in her handbag before passing through airport security, a court heard yesterday.

The woman was one of two Colombians who first admitted and then denied smuggling nearly half a kilogramme of cocaine into Malta.

Olga Lucia Rativa Restrepo and Sandra Castana, both 38-year-old mothers, were arrested at the ­airport on Tuesday after they arrived on a flight from Spain.

Police sources said one of the women could not take the pain of the package so as soon as she got off the plane she stopped at an airport toilet, removed it and placed it inside her handbag.

Suspicions were aroused and airport security subjected them to a search. The women are said to have cooperated with the police.

Sobbing in court, the two at first pleaded guilty to conspiring to import cocaine, importing the drug, trafficking and possession of an amount denoting it was not for personal use.

But after Magistrate Joseph Apap Bologna warned them they could spend the rest of their lives in jail for drug trafficking, they decided to retract their guilty pleas and denied all the charges.

They did not request bail and were remanded in custody. Police Inspector Malcolm Bondin prosecuted while lawyer Joseph Ellis appeared for the women.