Investigators charged the woman, a 28-year-old U.S. citizen who had traveled to Sydney from Los Angeles, with violating an Australian customs law that prohibits items like weapons, radioactive substances and counterfeit credit cards.
She could be get up to 10 years in prison if convicted, the Australian Border Force said in a news release.
The woman, who authorities did not identify, was taken into custody after her arrival in Sydney on Sunday.
She appeared in court the following day and received bail, but she could still face visa cancellation and removal from Australia depending on how the ongoing legal proceedings turn out, according to the Australian Border Force.
Australia has some of the strictest gun laws in the world.
After a mass shooting at a café in the Tasmanian town of Port Arthur in April 1996, which left 35 people dead and another 23 people wounded, Australia passed legislation that banned the sale and importation of automatic and semi-automatic rifles and shotguns, established a 28-day waiting period to buy a firearm, and implemented a widespread and mandatory gun-buyback program.
The government confiscated and destroyed almost 700,000 firearms, which, at the time, cut the number of gun-owning households by about half in Australia.
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