CUSTOMS AGENTS FIND OPIUM-SOAKED SWEATER

A woman was arrested recently at San Francisco International Airport after
police determined that a sweater in her luggage had been soaked in the drug.

Officer Henry Friedlander, a spokesman for the San Francisco Police
Department's airport bureau, said that police and the San Mateo County
Narcotics Task Force were called in Friday after customs agents noted a
strong smell of opium around Shahnaz Ebrahimi, 58, who was returning on a
flight from Iran.

Friedlander said agents discovered that Ebrahimi's luggage contained a
sweater, wrapped in plastic, that had been soaked in more than 400 grams of
liquid opium.

"Her excuse for having the substance on her was she was having major pain,"
he said, and she apparently planned to use it as a painkiller.

Ebrahimi is a Campbell resident who legally resides in the United States,
Friedlander said.

Ebrahimi also had more than 170 tablets of other drugs on her person,
Friedlander said, all of which she said were for pain. All of the drugs
were illegal in this country, he said.

Ebrahimi was booked into San Mateo County Jail and released after posting
$20,000 bail, said San Mateo County District Attorney Jim Fox. She is
scheduled to be arraigned on Nov. 6.