A South African tourist was arrested for allegedly smuggling meth through an airport in the Philippines.

Phillip Theunissen, 31, arrived at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) in Manila on Ethiopian Airlines flight ET644 that had come from Addis Ababa on October 12.

However, customs officers flagged his check-in luggage after allegedly noticing 'suspicious objects' inside during scans.

The NAIA Inter-Agency Drug Interdiction Task Group opened his suitcase and allegedly found 13.7lbs of methamphetamine kept in a plastic pouch wrapped in packing tape and duct tape. The bundle had been buried beneath a pile of his clothes.

Police Brigadier General Eleazar Matta, director of the Philippine National Police Drug Enforcement Group (PDEG), said: 'At around 9:20 pm on Saturday, October 12, an interdiction operation was conducted by the NAIA-Inter-Agency Drug Interdiction Task Group (IADITG), the Intelligence Foreign and Liaison Division, the PDEG, the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) and officers from the Bureau of Customs (BOC).

'The 31-year-old South African national was detained after a transparent plastic pouch wrapped with black packaging tape was found inside his black luggage.'

The contraband believed to be worth 42.1 million PHP (560,907 GBP) was sent to the PDEA Laboratory Service for further examination.

Theunissen will face charges for allegedly violating Section 4, Article 2 of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002.

He was handed over to PDEA officials for questioning.

(1 GBP = 75.06 PHP)