A Hong Kong woman was sentenced to over nine years in prison for smuggling $1 million worth of methamphetamine or ‘P’ mailed to her in pork cans.

Sui Man ‘Christine’ Ip was sentenced to nine years and three months in the Auckland High Court on Monday for importing a class A controlled drug.

Customs found three cans marked as ‘stewed pork ribs’ were in fact filled with just over one kilogram of meth in total.

Ip arrived in New Zealand in January and moved into a flat the same day.

Two weeks later, a package of assorted food items mailed from Hong Kong was x-rayed by the Ministry for Primary Industries and referred to Customs as the cans’ contents didn’t look like food.

Customs investigators linked the package to Ip and arrested her at Auckland International Airport in early March when she tried to leave the country.

She will have to serve at least half her jail-term before facing deportation.

Maurice O’Brien, Customs Investigations Manager, said it was not uncommon for offenders to come into the country solely to ‘catch’ and re-deliver drugs.