
Multa Fidrus
The Jakarta Post, Tangerang
Customs and excise officers foiled the smugling attempt of 6.913 grams shabu-shabu (crystal methampehtamine) from Hong Kong into the country at the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport on Friday evening.
Officers also arrested two Taiwanese identified as Kuo Ting Liu, 23 and Huang Yu Lum, 26, along with the evidence allegeldly worth not less than Rp 10 billion in the local market .
Rahmat Subagion, chief of the airport customs office said the suspects arrived at the airport at about 8 p.m., on Friday on board China Airline CI 679.
"Officers, who obeserved the profiles of the arrving passengers at became suspicious when the two suspects looked nervous and other officers at the checking point found strange objects in two luggages," he said.
After waiting for a few minutes, the two Taiwainesse came to claim the two luggages and officers asked them to open the luggages because it's not logic if passengers' luggages only contained food and snacks entirely.
Officers then examined the food and snack and found 29 bags containing criystal methamphetamine wrapped in aluminum foild inside the food and snack boxes.
Unfortunately, none of the two suspects could be asked for comments as they could not speak English at all.
meanwhile, Eko Darmanto, chief of intelligence at the customs office said the suspects had only told officers that someone would pick up them as soon as they arrived at the airport.
"We always pay extra attention to all passengers arrving from Hong Kong, China, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore, high-risk countries for drug smuggling routes," he said.
According to Eko, it was the third drug smuggling attempt that customs officers have foiled since February.
On February 20, officers seized of 515 cocaine from an Englishman identified as Michael Anthony Guevara, 34, who flew to Jakarta from Singapore along with his Thai girl friends identified as Thitirat Charoensul, 24, and Jintana Naksri, 27.
The drugs, estimated to be worth Rp 2 billion was hidden in a bag Thitirat was carrying and interrogation of her led officers to arrest Naksri and Guevara, who were also at the airport at that time.
The police subsequently learned of the alleged receiver's address and arrested another Englishman, identified as John Patrick Gerard, 52, in Cilandak, South Jakarta and confiscated eight grams of cocaine from him.
On March 29, officers also confiscated 9.4 kilograms shabu-shabu (crystal methampehtamine) and arrested three Malaysian-Chinese citizens identifed as Thor Li Hwa, 36, Tan Sew Hua, 42 and Pe Mee Yee, 33 as suspects along with the drugs allegedly worth between Rp 10 and 15 billions.
According Eko, it was the best quality of shabu-shabu ever smuggled from Hong Kong into the country and the drug was smuggled to Indonesia because of dropping prices in Hong Kong.
"The smugglers had always applied disconnected net system in the smuggling attempt so that we could not find them," he said adding that the two Taiwanese were believed to be sent by the same drug syndicate as three Malaysian-Chinese citiszens from Hong Kong.
Like the three Malaysians, the two Taiwanese will face the charges of violating the 1997 psychortopic substance law, which carries a maximum punishment of 15 years prison term while the English man and his girl friends will face the charges of the 1997 anti-drug law that carries a maximum penalty of death.
Bachtiar, the head of Banten regional Customs and Excise Office said that it was believed the drug syndicate usually sends their people to carry the drug into the country in several different groups all at once.
"If one failed at the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, others could still smuggle the drugs through other airports in the country," he said.
He said Soekarno-Hatta International Airport has been always in the front line for drug smugglign cases because it is the main country's international gate.
"Although no drug smuggling attempts had been foiled through sea port in Banten such as Merak in Cilegon, customs officers had conitued to develop monitoring system in the sea. We have recently made the profiling," he said.
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