Customs officers seize Ecstasy at a post office
JAKARTA (JP): Customs and excise officers have found a package containing tens of thousands of Ecstasy pills at a post office, Director General of Customs and Excise Soehardjo Soebardi said yesterday.
Soehardjo, however, declined to explain further, saying that the finding is still under investigation.
He also declined to name the location of the post office, but said that there were nearly as many pills in the mailed package as were seized from two Singaporeans arrested at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport on Sunday.
The Singaporeans brought over 70,000 Ecstasy pills from Paris via Hong Kong.
"We'll announce the details in the near future just after our investigation is completed," Soehardjo said during a hearing with members of the House of Representatives' Trade and Finance Commission.
This discovery of Ecstasy pills was the second time customs officials thwarted a mail shipment of the popular drug. On July 10, customs and excise officers at the Central Post Office in Pasar Baru, Central Jakarta, foiled an attempt to import 2,000 Ecstasy pills by postal service from the Netherlands.
In addition to Ecstasy pills, postal workers have also found packages of heroin mailed from overseas.
The senders usually mail their drug shipments to other people's addresses, and later hire couriers to fetch the packages.
Head of the Inspection Office of Customs and Excise at the Terminal II of Soekarno-Hatta airport, Sontang Ruli Siregar, said he has handled at least nine packages of heroin and Ecstasy pills delivered through express mail.
Four people were subsequently arrested, Sontang said while accompanying Soehardjo at yesterday's hearing.
Most of the total of 239,048 Ecstasy pills seized by customs and excise officers this year were confiscated in airports, not in post offices.
This most recent discovery of postmarked Ecstasy comes on the heels of a record drug bust. On Sunday, customs officers at the international airport arrested two Singaporeans for trying to smuggle 70,431 Ecstasy pills into Indonesia.
Khang Teck Chuan, 41, and Yeo Chee Keng, 28, were arrested in connection with the drug shipment as they stepped off of Cathay Pacific flight number 777 from Paris via Hong Kong.
A third alleged associate, Lee Li Yong, slipped past customs officers, who apparently did not recognize him as another suspect, reports said.
As of yesterday, the whereabouts of the other suspect were still unknown.
Police across Indonesia are tracing Yong, who holds Singaporean passport number S1497319 B, National Police Spokesman Brig. Gen. Nurfaizi said yesterday.
"We've sent his identification to officers at all exit gates available in this country in order to arrest the suspect," Nurfaizi told reporters.
The arrest of the two Singaporeans in connection with a drug case surprised many people who believed Singaporeans to be obedient citizens.
The drug bust was also shocking because the pills were transported in such an ordinary way. It was only through the X- ray detector that airport officers located the drugs.
Because of the brash method of transport, criminologists Mulyana W. Kusumah and Adrianus Meliala say the case reflects outsiders' belief that Indonesian officers can be easily bribed.
"It also tells us that traffickers are not afraid of the light punishment they could face here," Mulyana, former member of Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation, said.
According to Mulyana, the authorities should conduct an in- depth investigation on the real motive of the traffickers.
"We all know that there's a big money behind this business but is it true they run such a risky business without a mission to destruct our young people?" asked Mulyana. (bsr/rid)