Cocaine accused's health a worry

Sharon Armstrong was arrested in Argentina with 5kg of cocaine. Photo / Supplied

Friends and family of a New Zealand woman arrested in Argentina last week after trying to board a plane with a suitcase containing 5kg of cocaine say she has had heart problems and are concerned about her health, a former colleague says.

Sharon Armstrong, former Maori Language Commission deputy chief executive, was arrested on April 13 after Buenos Aires Airport police allegedly found the cocaine hidden in a suitcase.

Former chief executive of the Maori Language Commission, Haami Piripi told NZPA Ms Armstrong had been hospital with heart problems about a year ago and friends and family were concerned about her health. She had also had breathing problems.

"We are very anxious to make sure that she gets the medications for her health problems," Mr Piripi said.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the New Zealand Embassy in Buenos Aires had "actively" been involved in her situation which gave people back home "some hope".

She was due to make her first court appearance on Friday (overnight Friday NZ time), he said.

Close friends and family were setting up a defence fund to help her in what could be a long legal process, he said.

"It's going to be a long haul we suspect."

Some family and friends had planned to travel over to Argentina but had been advised they would not be able to visit her until the authorities gave the all clear.

"There would not be very much use going over there and not being able to have access to her," he said.

He said Ms Armstrong was living a "lonely existence" and her friends were working on finding a way of communicating with her "to help her keep her sanity".

"We are all really concerned because it is a non-English speaking country and she has no Spanish skills whatsoever."

Ms Armstrong, 54, earlier told The Dominion Post she was fooled into smuggling the drugs by a man she was dating online.

She wished to apologise to her family, who had repeatedly warned her she could be the target of a scam, and said she had been a "silly old lady".

Conditions at the medium-security Federal Centre of Detention for Women in Ezeiza, Buenos Aires, where she was staying, were just passable, she said.

Ms Armstrong's cousin Kapoi Mathieson said she was going to London to meet a man she had been dating online,

"To my understanding she was flying direct to London but he asked her to stop into Argentina and pick up some things for him for a new job," she said.

Ms Mathieson said her cousin was a victim of an internet scam and her so-called boyfriend had taken advantage of her.

"I think whoever this guy is he's taken advantage of her because she was lonely," she said.

"For her it was like a dream come true, she was over the moon that she was going to meet this man and she wanted all of us to be happy for her, that she'd finally found something real."

The man's Facebook page has since disappeared and Interpol is searching for him.

- NZPA