MUESLI bars and potato chips - both common items often found in a traveller's bag.

But a Singaporean man, who was carrying what appeared to be the snacks, was stopped at the Sydney airport on Tuesday by Customs officers and suspected to be smuggling drugs instead.

Initial testing indicated the presence of heroin, though the purity of the blocks is unclear at this time. The illegal stash, if sold in Singapore, would have an estimated street value of $250,000.

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Other S'poreans caught

June 2007: A former factory worker, 40, was jailed nine years after he flew to Brisbane with 286.1g of pure heroin. The drugs he attempted to smuggle were estimated to have a street value of about S$730,000. He swallowed the tightly-wrapped packets filled with the drugs before landing at the Brisbane International Airport. The man, who had to excrete the drugs for the officers who nabbed him, was later jailed for nine years.

December 2006: A 27-year-old man was arrested near Melbourne for trafficking A$51 million (S$58 million) worth of Ecstasy in one of Victoria state's biggest drug hauls ever.

A 34-year-old man tried to smuggle 700g of heroin into Australia in his lycra cycling shorts. He was arrested in Sydney after he got off a flight from Bangkok.

April 2003: A 32-year-old man was caught at a beach in Melbourne for trying to ship A$165 million worth of heroin from North Korea to Australia. He received a 24-year jail term.

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