HUNT FOR FUGITIVE CLOSES IN

International fugitive and alleged drug smuggler, Lisa Marie Smith, branded
the most wanted woman in the world, is said to be living secretly in
Australia as a newly married housewife.

The Melbourne-born woman, wanted on drugs charges for extradition to
Thailand by the international crime-fighting agency Interpol, has been on
the run from the law for five years. But a claim she is back in Australia
led to a Federal Police appeal for those harboring her to turn her in.

Facing 20 years in Klong Prem jail, also known as the "Bangkok Hilton",
Smith fled in August 1996. Her father, then chief executive of the Hong
Kong-based AXA China Insurance, paid $75,000 bail.

Smith - reportedly the first Australian drugs prisoner to be granted bail
in Thailand - went on the run for several years in European playgrounds but
is said to have slipped unnoticed into Australia, despite being on the "red
alert" list held by authorities around the world.

Federal Police and Interpol are convinced she would have been detected if
she had tried to enter Australia under her own name.

Federal Police this past week appealed for anyone harboring her in
Australia, or who knows where she might be, to contact them.

The belief she entered the country just before Christmas is based on a
claim by a Victorian friend of Smith, who says he received a letter from
her sent from Western Australia shortly before Christmas. He also says he
spoke with her by phone.

Smith first wrote to the Victorian man, who wants to be known only by his
first name, Grant, in March and June 1996 while jailed in Thailand after
her arrest in February.

Aged 20 at the time, Smith, who holds dual Australian and British
passports, was caught at Bangkok airport allegedly trying to smuggle
fourkilograms of cannabis and 565 amphetamine tablets out of Thailand.
Grant wrote to Smith offering advice on how he left Thailand after spending
months in jail on a firearms charge in 1987. He advised her which Bangkok
solicitors to trust.

In her letters to Grant, reported at the time in The Sunday Age, Smith
wrote "...hopefully in the not too distant future, I'll be visiting
Australia ..."

The most recent letter to Grant reads: "So pleased to be able to write to
you again, many things have happened since I last wrote you and it's so
good to be home and maybe a family. Thanks for all your help, never has
such good advice come at the right time.

"I'm here in the West. It was just a hop skip and a jump. I hope you are
well ... we all must get together some day soon." Smith signs the letter
"love Lisa".

A handwriting expert who examined the signatures for The Sunday Agecould
not make a judgment on the authenticity of the document.

Grant says Smith told him she had married an Englishman and had entered the
country on her own passport. She could also have entered under her new,
married name, which Grant believes to be Lisa Marie McGuigan.

He claims the letter was sent to his former Melbourne address a few weeks
before Christmas and forwarded to him in country Victoria. It was followed
by a telephone call in which he said Smith referred to living "out west".
This letter was postmarked at an inner-Perth suburb. Dick Moses, head of
the Australian Federal Police's international operations, said the letter
was "interesting but not conclusive".

He appealed to anyone harboring Ms Smith to come forward. It was unlikely
Smith, who remained on Interpol's 10 most wanted list, would have entered
the country under her own name and passport. "She has a red flag attached
to her which means anybody travelling using her passports would have been
picked up by immigration officials," Mr Moses said.

He said he would contact Thai authorities to tell them of the letter.

"Basically we will only arrest her if there's a specific request from our
counterparts in Thailand."

Asked if she would be deported to Thailand - where she could face the death
penalty or a long jail term, Mr Moses said: "That's a matter for the
Federal Government."

Meanwhile, Thai police have told The Sunday Agethey have stepped up their
search and will not give up until Smith faces trial in Thailand.

Smith's disappearance from Thailand led to claims her freedom had been
virtually bought when her father paid the bail money.The commander of the
Thai police foreign affairs department, Watcharapol Prasarnrajkit, said at
the time that "the reputation of Thailand is at stake" because of the case.

The granting of bail was virtually unprecedented in a country where accused
prisoners are commonly kept in chains in appalling conditions.

There are also concerns that the case has put other foreigners at risk of
harsher sentences and that Australia might be reluctant to extradite in future.

Three Australians, Lyle Doniger, Jane Dawson and Deborah Spinner, regarded
by the AFP as small-time couriers in an operation organised by others -
were each sentenced in 1997 to 50 years' jail after admitting to attempting
to carry 115 grams of heroin from Bangkok to Sydney.

An AFP officer involved in the case was reported to have said there was
"complete shock" at the "draconian sentence" and it might affect how AFP
officers liaised with Thai police in future operations.

"It was expected, going on previous cases, that the three would be
sentenced to 12 to 15 years and that they would possibly serve six or
eight. The Thais were extremely embarrassed and angry that Lisa Marie Smith
had absconded, and I believe that these three are paying the price for her
escape," he said.