Africans nabbed for allegedly smuggling 800 grams of heroin

JAKARTA (JP): Jakarta police arrested two foreigners over the weekend in connection with the alleged importation of some 800 grams of heroin, valued at more than Rp 400 million (US$181,181).

Lt. Col. Edi Darnadi S.O., of the Jakarta police's criminal investigation directorate, told reporters yesterday the two suspects were Ibrahim Saebi, who hails from Mali, and Mustapha Abdu Genewu of Ghana.

Saebi was reportedly traveling on a U.S. passport, he said.

"Both were arrested on Sunday. Ibrahim was arrested at the City Hotel in Pecenongan, Central Jakarta, while Mustapha was apprehended at the Rolex Hotel in Pasar Baru, also in Central Jakarta," Edi said.

"Both suspects arrived from Bangkok via Medan. They would have been caught upon their arrival if they had arrived through Soekarno-Hatta airport. They kept the heroin inside their shoes," he said. The two suspects traveled by car from Medan to Jakarta.

Edi said that both suspects are wanted men and belong to an international syndicate covering Bangkok, Medan and Jakarta.

From their passports police concluded that they were familiar with Jakarta. Ibrahim has traveled to and from Jakarta repeatedly over the past five years, and Mustapha has been here frequently during the past two years, Edi said.

The embassies of both suspects have been contacted through the ministry of foreign affairs. Ghana has no embassy in Jakarta. Its nearest embassy is in Tokyo.

Mustapha reportedly claimed under questioning that he was only executing orders to bring the heroin to Jakarta but added that he did not know to whom he had to give the drug.

Soekarno-Hatta international airport authorities arrested a 26-year-old Nepalese last year for smuggling in 103 capsules of heroin, weighing 1.2 kilograms, concealed in his stomach.

A number of foreigners have been sentenced to life imprisonment and death in the recent past for heroin trafficking in Indonesia.

The Central Jakarta District Court sentenced Thai national Sae Lim Iaw to life imprisonment in June for drug trafficking.

In June last year, the West Jakarta District Court sentenced 39-year-old Chan Tin Chong of Malaysia to death for attempting to smuggle 429 grams of heroin into Indonesia.

In Medan last September, the North Sumatra District Court sentenced to death two Thai nationals, Sealow Prasert, 55, and Namsong Sirilak, 22, as well as an Indian, Ayodya Prasat Chawbey, 53, after the three were convicted of smuggling 12.19 kilograms of heroin into the country. (01)