Death sought for cocaine smuggler

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.