A woman told the police she thought heroin packages hidden in her luggage were gifts her Libyan boyfriend wanted her to deliver to his brother in Malta.

A jury yesterday heard a prosecutor allege that Anna Spiteri, 47, of Marsa, who pleads not guilty to drug smuggling, flew into the island with 3.5 kilos of heroin worth about €160,000 hidden in two laptop bags on September 17, 2008.

According to the prosecution, she hatched the plan to import the heroin with her boyfriend Nagi Al Margash. She first flew with him to Tunisia and on her return she was to meet Mr Al Margash’s brother, Mohammed Ahmed, and their cousin, Isaam Abdulmawla M. Zbeda, and hand the drugs over to them.

Ms Spiteri told the court she had two children and was separated.

She met Mr Al Margash in Marsa in May 2008 and he asked her if she would accompany him as he was alone and she did. He took her out to eat, bought her clothes and jewellery and their relationship grew and became intimate.

On one occasion, the couple flew to Tunis and she took a plastic bag containing her clothes. She trusted him and told him she suffered from depression, so he took her to see a doctor there, she said.

They remained in Tunis for two nights and during that time she never laid eyes on anything to do with drugs and the subject was never mentioned, she testified.

At the airport, on the way back he told her he had put two presents in her luggage for his brother in Malta and that the brother would meet her at the airport. On arrival she placed her luggage in the X-ray machine and only realised it contained drugs when she was told by Customs officers.

“Had I known it contained drugs, I would have never taken it. I never knew the bag had drugs in it,” she told the court.

She is expected to be cross-examined tomorrow.

Lawyer Malcolm Mifsud appeared as legal aid.

Lawyer Leonard Caruana from the Attorney General’s Office prosecuted.