Customs hands over Ecstasy suspects to National Police

JAKARTA (JP): The Soekarno-Hatta International Airport's Customs and Excise Office handed over yesterday two Singaporeans arrested for smuggling 16,437 Ecstasy pills and 440 grams of Ecstasy powder on Sunday to the National Police.

The office's chief, Nisfu Chasbullah, said his officers arrested the suspects, Loh Kok Ban, 37, and Lim Tian Kwang, 24, after finding drugs in two of the suspects' bags.

The suspects disembarked from Cathay Pacific flight CX-777 from Paris via Hong Kong.

"The airport's X-ray detector located the pills and the powder in the bags. When the bags were opened, the pills and the powder were found in chocolate plastic wrappers. The officers then arrested the two," Nisfu said.

In a preliminary interrogation the suspects, who were salesmen as their passports stated, said they were couriers.

The suspects said they were paid S$8,000 (US$5,565) by someone in Singapore to get the pills and the powder in Amsterdam and deliver it to another person in Jakarta. "But the suspects did not want to identify the people," he said.

The Chief for Drug Affairs of the National Police, Maj. Djati U. Saragih, said police would send the case to the Public Prosecutors' Office as soon as the dossiers were completed.

"We found enough evidence to charge the suspects," Maj. Djati said.

He said the suspects would be charged with violating Articles 80 and 81 of the Health Law by distributing Ecstasy.

"Although the suspects claimed to be only couriers in the business, the facts showed they brought the pills here," Djati said.

Airport customs and excise officials have seized 239,048 pills and arrested dozens of suspects since March 1996.

Most of the suspects' embarkation places were in Europe, particularly Amsterdam.

On Dec. 1, two Singaporeans were arrested at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport for trafficking a record 70,431 Ecstasy pills into Indonesia. They were arrested soon after disembarking a Cathay Pacific flight from Paris to Jakarta via Hong Kong.

The suspects, identified as Khang Thek Chuan, and Yeo Chee Kheng, bought the pills worth an estimated Rp 4.2 billion (US$1.8 million) in Brussels.

The second largest seizure was 60,000 Ecstasy pills in April. The owner carried the pills in a bag. The bag was left at the airport so another syndicate member, an airport worker, could collect it later at the Lost & Found office. Four people were arrested in connection with the case. (jun)