SYDNEY, Nov. 12 (Xinhua) -- A 50-year-old woman has been charged over a major strawberry needle contamination case in Australia's Queensland state and faces up to 10 years in jail, according to police.
The suspect was arrested late Sunday, two months after a discovery of strawberry punnets pierced with needles sparked a major public safety warning and national multi-agency investigation, Queensland police said in a statement.
"This is a major and unprecedented police investigation with a lot of complexities involved," said Detective Superintendent Jon Wacker.
"The Queensland Police Service has allocated a significant amount of resources to ensure those responsible are brought to justice."
The suspect, due in court on Monday, faces seven counts of contamination of goods under the criminal code, which carries a three-year maximum penalty, police said. A "circumstance of aggravation" will also be alleged, elevating the maximum sentence to 10 years' imprisonment, they added.
The woman worked as a farm supervisor in the strawberry industry, which saw the contamination spread from Queensland to across the country, the ABC news channel reported.
There were more than 180 reports of sewing needles in the strawberries in total, with at least 15 found to be hoaxes, Wacker was quoted as saying. Nearly 70 strawberry brands were affected by the scare, resulting in supermarkets taking the fruit off shelves and tons of it dumped at the peak of the growing season.
Authorities also offered rewards for information on those responsible and rolled out tougher regulations to crack down on such incidents.
