A foreign traveler was detained for hiding 1,512 grams of heroin in dress buttons, said border defense officers in China's central Hunan Province Friday.

The masses of buttons in the female traveler's luggage on the scanner screen aroused the officers' doubts, when she went through the immigration check point at 6:15 p.m. Sunday at Huanghua Airport in Changsha City. The officers opened the luggage, and found 18 figured dresses, each sown with 27 to 30 buttons 2.5 cm in diameter. After prizing open one of the buttons, they saw a plastic film bag with white powder in it.

In total, the officers found 1,512 grams of heroin in 491 bottons on the dresses.

Investigation showed that the female traveler had picked the drugs in Malaysia, and went over to Hong Kong to take a KA720 plane to Changsha, from where she planned to go to the southeast Guangzhou City to meet drug handlers.

After learning the two Guangzhou handlers' name, contact information and the delivery point, the border defense officers and local police flew to Guangzhou, and arrested the handlers at dawn on Monday.

At present, the three suspects are in criminal detention. The police would not release their names, fearing it would compromise further investigation by Changsha Airport Police Bureau.

(Xinhua News Agency April 3, 2009)