SYDNEY, Australia — The Queensland police have arrested a former strawberry industry worker for spiking strawberries with needles, a crime that fueled a nationwide scare that crippled Australia’s strawberry industry.

The woman, a former supervisor at a strawberry farm in Queensland, was arrested Sunday and has been charged with seven counts of contamination of goods. The police say there was a “circumstance of aggravation,” meaning that if convicted, she faces up to 10 years in prison. The local news media identified her as My Ut Trinh, 50.

“This has probably been one of the most trying investigations that I’ve been a part of,” Jon Wacker, a detective superintendent of the Drug and Serious Crime Group, said in a news conference on Monday.

News that fruit was being tampered with first broke in September, after several people reported discovering needles in strawberries they had purchased. One 7-year-old girl bit into a contaminated strawberry but was not harmed. Another man from Queensland was less lucky: he was hospitalized after he swallowed half a needle while eating the fruit.