Dutch national faces 12 years in prison
Multa Fidrus, The Jakarta Post, Tangerang
Prosecutors at the Tangerang District Court have requested a 12- year jail term for Dutch national on Tuesday for smuggling more than 34,000 tablets of ecstasy pills into the country in April.
They also told the court Max should be fined Rp 250 million (US$15,600).
"The defendant has been charged with violating Article 59 of Law No. 5/1997 on psychotropic drugs, which carries a maximum penalty of death," prosecutor Faisal Adi said during the trial on Tuesday.
Aijal Marcus, alias Max, an Indonesian-born Dutchman, was arrested on April 20 in Pasar Baru, Central Jakarta.
The 44-year-old defendant, who speaks Ambonese fluently, had reportedly stored the pills inside a 4.5 kilogram cardboard package using a DHL forwarding service. He declared the box, which he sent before taking a flight for Jakarta, contained documents.
Suspecting customs and excise officers opened the package and found six plastic bags containing 29,970 ecstasy pills in total. A lab test later confirmed the pills contained psychotropic substances and amphetamine.
Written as the sender on the package was 'GE Plastic- Plasticlaan 1 Bergen op Zoom Amsterdam,' while the recipient's address was 'RMJ Portier Audio, Jl. Krekot No. 3C Pasar Baru, Central Jakarta.
In cooperation with airport police, customs officers first arrested a man, Ronaldo, at the recipient's address, who notified police about Max, the owner of the package.
Ronaldo was later freed by police after the investigators determined he had known nothing about the delivery.
Airport customs and excise officers foiled the second delivery attempt of another 4,840 pills on April 22 from the same sender in Amsterdam to the same address in Jakarta.
Max, who worked as a taxi driver in Amsterdam, had told police that Indonesia was a good market for drugs and that each pill would be sold here for Rp 100,000 (US$9.70).
He bought the pills from a man called Gerald at Twin Peaks Cafi in Amsterdam and expected to earn Rp 3.5 billion from selling them.
Presiding judge Gatot Supramono adjourned the hearing until next Tuesday to hear Max's defense statement.