Brazilian cocaine smugglers arrested
Multa Fidrus, Tangerang
The death penalty handed down to Brazilian Marco Archer Cordova Moreira on June 8 for attempting to smuggle 13.7 kilograms of cocaine from Peru apparently failed to deter three of his countrymen from attempting the same thing last week.
New National Narcotics Agency (BNN) director Makbul Padmanagara acknowledged that Indonesia had become a destination country for drugs due to its lax border controls.
"Drug trafficking is a national issue that requires all of us to work together," he told a media conference at the airport on Thursday.
On Saturday, officers of the Interdiction Task Force at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport arrested the three Brazilians for trying to smuggle six kilograms of cocaine from Sao Paolo in six out of eight surf boards they were carrying.
Customs and Excise Director General Eddy Abdurachman told the press conference that the three have been identified as Rodrigo Gularte, Fred Silva Magueta and Emerson Vieira Guimaraes.
He added that the suspects arrived at the airport at 3 p.m. to transit on their way to Bali, a haven for surfers.
Makbul said that the suspects employed one of the latest methods of drug smuggling.
"The agency strongly suspects that the three have a link with a John Miller, the person who gave Moreira the order to bring in the cocaine," Makbul said, adding that Miller was still at large.
"However, we need to conduct further investigations to find out whether the three suspects were working for the same person or another drug syndicate," he added.
The cocaine, which was in 12 black plastic bags, was estimated as having a street value of Rp 2.4 billion (US$247,191).
As with Moreira, the three suspects have been charged under Article 82 of Law No. 22/1997 on narcotics, which carries the death penalty.
Moreira is the 27th drug smuggler to have been sentenced to death by the Tangerang District Court since January 2000, although none of them have been executed so far.
Of the 27 persons on death row, 22 are foreign nationals, mostly Africans, while five are Indonesians.