An Australian grandmother convicted of drug smuggling has lost her appeal in a Japanese court despite her arguing she was a victim of an elaborate romance scam.

Perth woman Donna Nelson, 59, was appealing a six-year sentence handed down in December 2024 for bringing two kilograms of methamphetamine into the country in January 2023.

Nelson was arrested at Japan's Narita International Airport, near Tokyo, after customs officials found the drugs hidden under a false bottom in a suitcase.

The Aboriginal community leader had told the court she was unaware of the drugs and she was carrying the suitcase for a man she hoped to marry.

The man called Kelly, whom she met online in 2020, told her he was the Nigerian owner of a fashion business.

In 2023, he paid her to travel to Japan via Laos, an

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