Customs office foils delivery of consignment of ecstasy
Customs office foils delivery of consignment of ecstasy
Multa Fidrus, The Jakarta Post, Tangerang
The customs and excise office at the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport revealed on Tuesday that it had managed to foil the delivery of 34,810 ecstasy pills from the Netherlands.
Head of the airport customs and excise office Nofrial said his office also arrested suspected sender Marcus Aijal alias Max, 42, an Indonesian-born Dutch national.
According to Nofrial, Max was the sender as well as recipient of the pills sent through delivery company DHL in a cardboard box weighing 4.5 kilograms.
Max allegedly told DHL that the box, which he sent before taking a flight leaving for Jakarta, contained documents.
Airport customs and excise officers, however, were suspicious about the box that arrived at the airport last Wednesday, on flight No. LD-0372. Max also arrived on the same flight.
"On the box, the name of the sender was GE Plastic-Plasticlaan 1 Bergen op Zoom Amsterdam and the recipient was RMJ Portier Audio, Jl. Krekot No. 3C Pasar Baru, Central Jakarta," said Nofrial.
He said the officers opened the box and found six plastic bags containing 29,970 ecstasy pills.
"Our officers then conducted a narcotest on the pills that confirmed that the pills contain psychotropic substances with amphetamine," he said.
Customs officers arrested Ronaldo, of Jl. Krekot, Central Jakarta last Thursday. Ronaldo told the officers that the drugs belonged to Max.
Ronaldo then helped officers to arrest Max, also on Thursday. Max, who was born in Ambon, works as a taxi driver in Amsterdam.
Ronaldo was released immediately after Max was arrested.
Airport customs and excise officers again foiled a delivery attempt on Friday of another 4,840 pills from the same sender in Amsterdam to the same address in Jakarta.
Nofrial quoted Max as telling customs and excise officials that Indonesia was a good market for drugs and that each pill would be sold here at Rp 100,000 (US$10.5).
He expected a turnover of Rp 3.5 billion from the ecstasy pill sales, Nofrial said.
In another development, the office also arrested Ismail Misfir, 23, a passenger of GA-533 flight who was about to fly to Banjarmasin, South Kalimantan last Friday morning.
Ismail was found to be in possession of 0.6 grams of crystal methamphetamine hidden in a match box in his pocket.