UK actress Emaa Hussen, 34, has been arrested and charged with attempting to smuggle 320kg of methamphetamine into Australia. She appeared in a Sydney court on Thursday, June 18, and faces a maximum punishment of life in prison if convicted.
Alleged Drug Smuggling Operation
Hussen is best known for her role as Naz Mehmet in the EastEnders spin-off E20. She is accused of hiding methamphetamine in charcoal bags shipped from Ghana to Australia. Police discovered the drugs, with a street value of £157 million, in Port Botany. Two Adelaide residents were also arrested in April in connection with the alleged crime. Hussen has been refused bail and will return to court in August.
Border Force officers were tipped off about the shipment, which was destined for a storage facility in Girraween. Upon inspection, they allegedly found a white crystallized substance in the bags via X-rays. The contents, listed as charcoal bags from Ghana, tested positive for methamphetamine.
Hussen is alleged to have supervised men unpacking the bags before driving to a Blacktown residence, where she was arrested and electronic devices seized. Investigators claim they found 32 identical bags at the property. The two Adelaide suspects are accused of renting the storage facility using false identities.
Local police stated: "The seizure of these drugs – with an estimated street value of $296 million – has prevented a potential 3.2 million deals from reaching Australian streets and demonstrates the AFP's ability to operate seamlessly across borders. Criminal syndicates will go to great lengths to disguise illicit drugs, including embedding them in everyday goods like charcoal, but our highly skilled officers are trained to see beyond these attempts."
Acting Career
Hussen played Naz Mehmet in EastEnders spin-off E20 in 2011, a major character in series two. She described her character as "very torn" between traditional Muslim values and modern East End life. Reflecting on her own experiences, she said: "It's a very common thing in East London to be a girl from a Muslim family and want to do your own thing." She added: "I think I got the part because the producers saw something very authentic in me and very real."
She also starred in the 2013 Jason Statham film Hummingbird (released as Redemption in other countries) as a prostitute. Her IMDB page lists only one other credit: The Plot to Bring Down Britain's Planes in 2012.
Personal Life
In a 2015 interview with the Guardian, Hussen discussed her experience coming to London as a refugee in 1999 at age eight. Born and raised in the Saidiya area of Baghdad, her mother was half-Iranian. After conflict between Iraq and Iran, it became dangerous for anyone with Iranian ties. Her uncles and grandfather were arrested, and her mother fled the country with her children.
"My mum said we were going on holiday for a week. We travelled to Jordan and then to the UK via Doha with fake passports – Mum told me not to talk because I could only speak Arabic and the passports were Danish. We were found out at the British border – thankfully the UK border agency was sympathetic."
She was enrolled in a Catholic school, and the family struggled financially. "At first I was embarrassed about being Iraqi. I rebelled as a teenager because I was living in two worlds, and my mother was scared of me becoming too British. Later, I got a tattoo of Iraq and she freaked out."
"When I was older I moved from Brighton to London. There was an Iraqi community there and I could be myself – I could drive; I was independent. It was a lifeline. I started working as an actor."
