Saudi Arabia releases Egyptian 'drug mule granny' after 4 month ordeal

An Egyptian grandmother, who was duped into smuggling drugs while attempting to perform the lesser pilgrimage to Mecca, will return home after a four month ordeal in Saudi Arabia.

Saadiya Abdel Salam, 75, will arrive in Cairo on Wednesday evening after she was finally cleared of charges by Saudi authorities, news website Masr al-Arabia  reported.

"Abdel Salam - the victim of the Umrah scam - will return after four months in custody in Saudi Arabia," the outlet quoted the Egyptian consul as saying in a statement.

"Saudi authorities have dropped the case… after the public prosecutors in both countries uncovered the truth," it added.

The elderly villager was arrested in March as she arrived at an airport in the city of Yanbu with a bag carrying around 75,000 pills of powerful painkiller tramadol.

According to local media, Abdel Salam was tricked into being a drug mule by a man in her Nile Delta village.

She had been told that she had been chosen to perform the lesser pilgrimage to Islam's holiest site Mecca at the expense of a wealthy Saudi.

The only catch was she had to carry a bag to deliver to the philanthropist.

News of Abdel Salam's arrest sparked street protests in her village of Dareen north of the capital Cairo.

Egyptian police have since arrested three people suspected of being involved an widespread narcotic smuggling operation using unsuspecting elderly pilgrims as mules.