Kuala Lumpur  - Malaysian airport police have detained a woman for suspected drug trafficking after she was caught carrying 10 towels soaked in liquid cocaine, news reports said Saturday.

Police declined to name the woman's nationality, but said the foreigner had arrived at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport from Sao Paulo, Brazil, on Thursday and was headed to Thailand.

Airport officials said the 36-year-old suspect was behaving suspiciously and was made to open her two suitcases.

"When a police team asked her to open them, seven wet towels were found in the first bag and three more in the second.

"Subsequent examination revealed that each towel had a combined weight of 1.5 kilograms, as it absorbed a kilogram of liquid cocaine," said central Selangor state anti-narcotics chief Nordin Kadir.

The drugs were estimated to be valued at 2.5 million ringgit (757,580 dollars), Nordin was quoted as saying by the official Bernama news agency.

He said the woman denied any knowledge of the cocaine, claiming that she was delivering the towels for a friend.

She has been remanded for one week to facilitate investigations.

If found guilty of trafficking, she faces a mandatory death sentence by hanging. (dpa)