Death sought for cocaine smuggler

Multa Fidrus, The Jakarta Post, Tangerang

Prosecutors at the Tangerang District Court demanded the death sentence for a cocaine smuggler holding a Brazilian passport.

Prosecutor Rachmat Vidianto told the court on Wednesday that defendant Rodrigo Gularte, 32, a resident of SV Lage De Vedra 95 AP 501 Itacorubi, Sao Paulo, was proven guilty of smuggling six kilograms of cocaine through Soekarno-Hatta International Airport last July 31.

Carrying two large surf boards, Gularte arrived at the airport along with two other Brazilians, Fred Silva Magueta and Emerson Vieira Guimaraes, on board Cathay Pacific flight CX 777.

Hendro Sumartito, a customs and excise officer who oversees the airport's check point where bags are examined through e-ray, became suspicious as foreign objects were embedded within six of the eight surf boards.

He then sent the three Brazilians along with their surf boards to a security post for further examination. When officers cut into one of the surf boards they found two plastic bags containing 500 grams of white powder each.

Ten other plastic bags, each containing 500 grams of cocaine, were also found in five other surf boards.

When officers interrogated them, Guimaraes and Magueta, who had been released, testified that the surf boards belonged to Gularte, and they had no knowledge of the drugs that Gularte was transporting within them.

Further examination at the National Police's lab in Jakarta confirmed on August 10, 2004 that the white powder was pure cocaine.

Gularte had testified before the court that he bought the drugs from someone in Guarullos, Brazil and that he planned to sell the drugs to foreigners in Bali, the country's prime tourist destination.

Gularte was charged with violating Article 82 of Law No. 22/1997 on drugs. The Article carries a maximum penalty of death.

Presiding judge Suprapto and two other panel members, Maha Nikmah and Sri Wahyuningsih, adjourned the session until next Wednesday to hear Gularte's defense.

Last August, the same court handed down the death sentence to Brazilian Marco Archer Cordova Moreira, who smuggled 13 kilograms of cocaine into the country from Peru.

The court has sentenced 28 drug smugglers to death since January 2000. Five of them are Indonesians and the others foreigners.

None of them have been executed as they continue to seek clemency through the Supreme Court.