I am shaking my head.

Chinese customs are the world's most anal as are the Hongkongnese, to even think you can get away with a lighter on a flight much less trying to smuggle 30 kg of meth is ridiculous.

I had a lighter in check in baggage on a flight to Singapore from Bayun two years ago and they pulled me up looking for it. Missed my flight too. 30kgs of drugs in a country carrying the death penalty. China of all places. That this is even in the news.

Australian/New Zealand dual national Peter Gardner's chances of avoiding the death penalty in China have rapidly deteriorated with local customs officials revealing that they believe he was the owner of two pieces of luggage stuffed with 30 kilograms of methamphetamine, also known as ice.

Sunday marks D-Day for the 25-year-old builder as it is his 37th day in detention, the longest Chinese authorities can keep a person without releasing them or charging them.

However, shocking details provided to The Sun-Herald indicate that customs officials believe Mr Gardner was involved in a drug-smuggling plot and his travelling partner, 22-year-old Kalynda Davis, had no knowledge or involvement.

Guangzhou Customs said that Mr Gardner, from Richmond in Sydney's north-west, was the owner of two drug-filled bags checked in to Flight CZ325 from Guangzhou to Sydney. The zippers were sealed with super glue and, when they were prised open in an interrogation room at Baiyun Airport, officials said they found 60 vacuum-sealed bags of suspicious particles, later proven to be 30 kilograms of the drug ice –the largest single haul of ice headed overseas ever seized by Guangzhou customs.

Guangzhou Customs also revealed it had caught another Australian national attempting to smuggle drugs out of China just this month –the 11th Australian caught in similar circumstances this year –underlining the thriving drug trade between southern China and Australia. The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) is understood to be providing ongoing consular assistance to as many as nine Australians on serious drug charges in China, some of whom are potentially facing the death penalty.

Mr Gardner and Ms Davis, who booked tickets to travel to Guangzhou for just three days, were pulled aside at 9.55pm on November 8 after officials detected irregularities with two pieces of luggage they checked in.

In a move that has raised many unanswered questions, Ms Davis was abruptly released 30 days later and returned home to Glenmore Park this week with her elated parents Larry and Jenny.

"After investigation, it was discovered that this drug trafficking was operated by [Gardner]," Guangzhou Customs told Fairfax Media in a statement.

"There was no evidence that shows [Davis] had any subjective intention to take part in this drug trafficking crime and she has been released back to Australia now."

Under Chinese law, police can detain those suspected of serious crimes for 30 days without charge, after which prosecutors can decide within seven days whether to indict.

Mr Gardner's family have not flown to China and he remains in a Guangzhou detention centre awaiting his fate. They declined to comment on the case.

His father Russell appeared relaxed and upbeat in posts made online during the week about the stormy weather and drinking beers, however, his younger sister Layken, a personal assistant living in Bellevue Hill, is distraught and has tried to contact her brother in writing, friends say.

Former school friends described Mr Gardner as a gentle, friendly guy. He has an unblemished criminal record in NSW apart from a drink driving charge.

"He is a really great guy, really caring, nice and softly spoken, I guess he just got tangled in a bad way of life," said one friend from Richmond High School. "Every time I talked to him he was always genuine and never seemed like he would get involved in that."

Mr Gardner was a hard-working builder, running his own business for a couple of years and preparing to start work again by setting up a new ABN just a day before he flew to China.

He was born in New Zealand but grew up in Sydney and is a dual citizen. The New Zealand government has taken charge of his case, indicating that he entered China on his New Zealand passport.

A spokeswoman for the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade said they had visited Mr Gardner in the detention centre to provide consular advice and check on his wellbeing.

"He remains in custody and has legal representation," the spokeswoman said. "The Ministry cannot comment on the ongoing investigation or interfere in the judicial proceedings of another country."

After Ms Davis returned to Sydney this week, her father revealed that she was cleared because she had carry-on luggage only.

He told a local newspaper that Ms Davis was shackled in a small cell during the 30-day investigation, was not allowed to have contact with the outside world and had her long, blonde hair cropped.

Mr Davis only flew to China the day after she was granted a release on December 5. The family had remainedlargely in the dark until then, instead allowing consular officials to deal with the matter in the best possible way.

"When I saw her for the first time, I just collapsed," he said. "She kept saying 'I'm sorry Dad, I didn't do it, I didn't do it, I didn't do it.'"

He said Mr Gardner was a friend and the pair had planned to have a holiday to New Zealand but decided at the last minute to add a three-day trip to China at the start then return to Sydney for two days then fly to New Zealand.

www.smh.com.au/nsw/peter-gardner-may-face-death-penalty-in-china-for-drug-smuggling-20141213-126dho.html

Guangzhou: An Australian man potentially facing the death penalty in China for allegedly trafficking methamphetamine says he thought he was merely carrying performance-enhancing peptides used for sport. In explosive and detailed testimony, Peter Gardner, 26, told a court in the southern metropolis of Guangzhou that he had been duped into being a drug mule by a sophisticated international smuggling synpikeyate with connections reaching into baggage handlers at Sydney Airport.

"This is the biggest mistake of my life," he told the Guangzhou Intermediate Court on Thursday morning, wearing handcuffs and dressed in a light grey suit. Mr Gardner, who was born in New Zealand but has lived in Australia for the past 18 years, said he paid his supplier about $13,000 for a range of different peptides and tanning agents which were popular, he said, in Sydney's rugby and bodybuilding circles.

Instead, Mr Gardner was stopped from boarding his Sydney-bound China Southern flight from Guangzhou in November with travelling companion Kalynda Davis, after customs officials detected 30 kilograms of the drug methamphetamine, also commonly known as ice, in their bags. With a rough Australian street value of $18 million, it was the biggest single haul of the drug ever seized at the airport.

"It should have been peptides," he said, adding that he felt "scared, worried and panicked" when he realised what was really in his bags.

The drugs were contained in two black pieces of luggage dropped off by two Chinese men at Mr Gardner's hotel just hours before his flight, the court heard. The zipper to the main compartment of each bag was superglued shut, which meant he hadn't checked its contents. But he was unconcerned because the same occurred when he made a successful run from Guangzhou in September.

"I was stupid. I thought it was so easy. I got ahead of myself," he said.

But prosecutors said it was "against common sense" that Mr Gardner would not check his bags for his goods having spent the money he claimed. Crucially, they said his DNA was found on the drug packaging. Mr Gardner's defence lawyer Richard Zhang said the evidence had been contaminated by customs officials.



Hotel security footage of Mr Gardner receiving the bags at his hotel was shown to the court, as was video of the eventual bust by custom officials, laying out bag after bag of ice on a table.



Mr Gardner broke down as he spoke of the hurt he had caused to his parents and pleaded for the judges to take into account his young age, contrition and cooperation with police.



"I'd like to go home before I'm old," he said, as his father wiped tears from his face.



Mr Gardner said he trusted his supplier and considered him a good friend, having worked in his capacity as a carpenter on the source's various housing extensions.



He said he was relayed detailed instructions to follow on his Blackberry, including a specific China Southern flight to catch back to Sydney whose scheduled arrival coincided with the shift times of the synpikeyate's baggage handlers. Mr Gardner was due to fly onward to Auckland after a layover in Sydney.



"They can smuggle anything, and they can get it for cheap," he said. "Drugs, pharmaceuticals, anything."



The court also heard customs officials had initially arrested Kalynda Davis because airline staff had checked in both bags under her name.



But Mr Gardner, still believing the bags contained peptides, claimed responsibility for the bags, explaining he had brought Ms Davis along so he would have a greater luggage check-in allowance.



Ms Davis was eventually released after police were satisfied she had no connection with the drugs.



Mr Gardner, a dual Australian and New Zealand national, was supported in court by his ashen-faced parents. New Zealand consul-general Rebecca Needham and other consular officials also attended. Consular assistance is being provided by the New Zealand consulate-general in Guangzhou, as he entered China on his New Zealand passport.



Mr Gardner is one of several Australians detained in Guangzhou facing serious drug charges which could attract the death penalty.



Guangzhou is the capital of Guangdong province, which has gained notoriety as a major manufacturing hub for synthetic drugs like ice, favoured by international drug synpikeyates for its regional transport links and ready availability of precursor chemicals.



Chinese prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for former Adelaide jockey Anthony Bannister, who also claimed to be have been framed after being caught with three kilograms of ice in his luggage. He is awaiting a verpikeyt after appearing in court in October.



Another eight Australians are still awaiting trial or verpikeyt on serious drug charges.



Under China's strict drug laws, anyone caught with 50 grams or more of heroin or methamphetamine is liable for capital punishment.

....and they try to get them into HK down the Pearl River.

Its just like Lucy, apart from that his name is Peter

For the first time ever I watched a Saudi execution the other day on YouTube. I'd read a story of a Burmese woman who was executed for crimes against a child. Observers noted how ferociously she protested her innocence up till the point of death.

I wouldn't say the video was gory ( thank god ) but it was a pitiful thing to watch/witness. I reaffirmed my belief that the death sentence harms society more then it helps.