A 47-year-old woman from Ontario will face drug charges after police and border services officers seized 16 kilograms of khat at the St. John's International Airport this morning.
Khat is legal is a plant from east Africa that contains two stimulants, cathinone and cathine. Those substances are included in Schedules 3 and 4 of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, but khat chewing has a long history and is legal in some countries.
The woman was arrested on her way from London, England to Toronto, via St. John's.
She was scheduled to appear in court in St. John's later today on charges of importing and trafficking a controlled substance.