Domestic demand for heroin 'increasing'
TANGERANG (JP): Increasing domestic demand for heroin has encouraged foreign drug dealers to smuggle the illegal narcotic into the country, Director General of Customs and Excise Permana Agung said on Tuesday.
Substantial quantities of the drug have been smuggled though the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport.
Permana said, the customs officers at the airport would stay alert for smugglers and monitor suspected drug dealers.
"Our officers will continue to work hard to fight the heroin smugglers. The arrest of four drug smugglers this month is proof of our diligence," he told reporters.
He said the large quantities of heroin coming into the country were a result of good harvests in the countries growing the poppies and processing the drugs.
He claimed the Customs and Excise office had anticipated the increased smuggling attempts, explaining that the smugglers usually arrived from India and Pakistan via Singapore.
Meanwhile, activist Stefanus Ledo Buyeng of the National Children's Institute hailed the customs officers who have arrested drug smugglers and prevented huge amounts of heroin worth billions of rupiah from entering the country.
"We might give an award to the officers because they have saved thousands of youths. We can not imagine if the heroin was not intercepted and consumed by our teenagers," Stefanus told reporters.
On Monday, the customs officers arrested Nigerian Hansen Anthony Nwaolisa, 35, for trying to smuggle 800 grams of heroin after deplaning from Pakistan Airline plying Karachi-Jakarta.
The officers also arrested South African Zwelbanzi Joseph Manana on Sunday for attempting to smuggle 1.2 kilograms of heroin worth Rp 1.5 billion (US$157,894).
Both Nwaolisa and Manana attempted to smuggle the drug by swallowing capsules containing the heroin.
The officers became suspicious of the men and took them to the airport clinic for X-rays which confirmed the capsules in their stomachs.
A Nepalese, identified as Indra Bahadur Tamang, was arrested at the airport last week for attempting to smuggle 900 grams of heroin. The 21-year-old suspect was found swallowing capsules containing the heroin.
On another occasion, customs officers arrested Nigerian Samuel Iwuch Kwuokoje, 30, for attempting to smuggle 3.6 kilograms of heroin hidden in a tombstone in his suitcase.
Indonesia's narcotics Law No. 22/1997 stipulates that drug dealers or smugglers could face the death penalty or a life sentence.
Despite the harsh sentence, it is still quite easy for users to buy the illicit drugs at places like cafes, discotheques or at the dealers' houses. (41/jun)