NZ pastor denies importing drugs to NT

An evangelical Christian pastor from New Zealand accused of importing more than nine kilos of methamphetamine and heroin into Australia says she has never been associated with drugs and can't even pronounce their names.

Bernardine Prince, 41, was arrested in May last year and has pleaded not guilty to importing a commercial quantity of drugs into Australia.

She had been travelling in Kenya and Cambodia as a pastor for a Christian organisation called Oasis of Grace, and was on her way back to Australia when her luggage was delayed in Singapore.

When her bags arrived in Darwin a customs officer detected traces of drugs on seven vinyl backpacks inside them.

In an interview with police recorded that same day, Prince denied any knowledge of the drugs.

I grew up in a Christian home, very sheltered," she told police in a video played before a Supreme Court jury in Darwin on Friday.

"The names (of the drugs) you're telling me, I couldn't even say them," she said.

"I have no knowledge of such a thing... I have not ever in my lifetime touched a drug of any kind."

Prince told police a Kenyan woman known only as "Mummy Rose" suggested she sell the bags, supposedly made by Kenyan men and women, to her Australian congregation to raise funds, and that Mummy Rose and her son packed the bags into her suitcases with her.

But the bags were tagged as made in China, and the drugs were packed in cardboard with Cambodian writing on it, said prosecutor Glen Rice.

He said a drug expert will testify that the drugs fit a Southeast Asian chemical profile.

The drugs had a street value of over $2 million.

The trial continues.