Customs officials find 2.62kg heroin hidden in shoes

JAKARTA (JP): Customs and excise officials at the Soekarno- Hatta International Airport arrested a 21-year-old Indonesian girl and her 25-year-old brother for allegedly attempting to smuggle 2.62 kilograms of pure heroin into the country on Tuesday.

Head of the airport's customs office, Tonny Soenanto, said Ayu Kusumaiti and brother Astion Marlim were apprehended shortly after customs officials discovered "something funny in their shoes".

Tonny said the way both Ayu and Astion were walking caught the attention of customs officers.

"It was as if their walk was forced... like heavily pressing the floor. When we took a closer look, we found there were some plastic packets sticking out of both of their Keds shoes," Tonny told The Jakarta Post.

"When Ayu was told to stop, she ran. I caught up with her easily ... her sports shoes were heavier than mine."

Both the girl and her brother were passengers of Thai Airways flight 433 from Bangkok. The airplane landed at the airport at 12:30 p.m.

The heroin has a total street value here of some Rp 2 billion (US$250,000).

Tonny said the girl confessed that she had "fallen for" a Thai man called Achtung, who met her earlier this year at the McDonald's restaurant near Sarinah department store on Jl. Thamrin in Central Jakarta.

"She said that when they met, she told Achtung everything about her life, including that both she and her brother were unemployed," Tonny said.

"So, Achtung offered her a vacation. Two return tickets for Jakarta-Bangkok-Jakarta. He said he would go and fly first to Bangkok, and meet both Ayu and Astion there."

"She left for Thailand with her brother, like a fool, on Sept. 15. Achtung showed both a really good time there. Upon returning home, Achtung gave her and her brother Keds shoes to wear. Both shoes were laden with heroin in packets."

Tonny said that Ayu was so innocent, that despite the heroin packets in the shoes, Achtung convinced her that the shoes were a new Thai design, and that his Indonesian friend, who was a shoe designer, needed them to copy the design.

"Achtung told them that the designer would meet them at Soekarno-Hatta. It seems she believed Achtung, and both she and her brother wore the shoes. Ayu wore brown shoes, while Astion wore blue ones," he said.

"Achtung also gave her an extra black pair to carry in her bag. They did not contain drugs."

On Aug. 31, a Thai woman named Khanchana Thiangtum was apprehended at the airport for allegedly trying to smuggle 1.75 kilograms of pure heroin into the country.

Chief of the National Police narcotics division, Col. Wilhelmus Laturette, said recently that fearing arrest themselves, some drug traffickers had begun recruiting young Indonesian girls as smugglers and dealers.

Wilhelmus said the tactic had become common among African-run drug syndicates, who use local Indonesian girls as couriers.

An Indonesian girl named Elizabeth Ruth, 26, was caught in mid-August allegedly smuggling at Karachi International Airport in Pakistan.

"Elizabeth had fallen in love with a Nigerian here, who gave her an air ticket to Jordan. At the Karachi stopover, a friend of her boyfriend stopped her, and gave her the heroin packet to bring to Jakarta," Wilhelmus said.

"Before she could step onto the plane, Karachi airport customs officers caught her." (ylt)