Ecstasy smugglers use post offices
JAKARTA (JP): Overseas traffickers of Ecstasy pills and heroin have made post offices in Indonesia's big cities one of their favorite ways of smuggling drugs, says an officer at the Directorate General of Customs and Excise.
"This year alone at least 115,874 Ecstasy pills and 1.8 kilograms of heroin have been seized by customs officers at major post offices in the country," Thomas Sugijata, Director of Prevention and Investigation, told The Jakarta Post here yesterday.
He said post offices are the second most popular means, after airports, for overseas traffickers to smuggle drugs into Indonesia.
Customs investigations show most of the mailed packages containing illegal drugs were sent via seamail from fictitious names, or no names at all, and the parcels were sent to Indonesian addresses, he said.
"However, most of the locals mentioned on the parcels claim to have no idea who the senders are or of the parcels when we go to their addresses for confirmation," Thomas said.
The favorite cities for Ecstasy and heroin traffickers are Jakarta, Surabaya in East Java and Medan in North Sumatra, he said.
The highest rate of Ecstasy smuggling via post offices was recorded early this month in Central Java when customs officers at the Semarang post office found 108,290 Ecstasy pills hidden in three different packages.
According to head of the Central Java Customs and Excise Office, Daradjadi, the packages were mailed from Thailand, Pakistan and Hong Kong.
"The date of mailing differed from one to the other but the packages arrived at the same time at the post office," Daradjadi said.
As of yesterday, Thomas said, three people, including two men whose addresses were on packages, were still under investigation.
He said officers found 55,000 Ecstasy pills in the package from Thailand, 24,000 pills in one mailed from Pakistan and 29,290 pills in the parcel from Hong Kong.
The success of customs officers at the Semarang post office in foiling the attempted smuggling of Ecstasy pills has been billed as the largest drug bust ever recorded by Indonesian authorities.
Postal workers in Surabaya have also seized 5,470 Ecstasy pills on two other occasions. Both packages were sent from Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
The first package with 1,800 pills was found on June 25 and the second with 3,670 pills, hidden in a portable electric stove, was found on July 2.
On July 7, customs and excise officers at the Central Post Office in Pasar Baru, Central Jakarta, foiled an attempt to smuggle 2,007 pills from the Netherlands.
"The drugs packaged together with toys were addressed to someone in Surabaya," said Thomas.
On July 25, customs officers at Medan post office found 107 pills hidden in a pencil box mailed from the Netherlands.
Heroin
Postal workers at Pasar Baru in Central Jakarta seized one kilogram of heroin on July 17 from a package mailed from Bangkok.
On Aug. 8, workers from the same post office confiscated another 300 grams of heroin packed in a black map posted from Bangkok.
Five days earlier customs officers at Medan post office seized a package from Bangkok containing 500 grams of heroin.
Unfortunately, Thomas admitted, the success stories of customs officers in detecting drugs mailed from overseas could not be followed with the arrests of the local suspects.
"They always say they have no idea who the senders are," he said.
"But we're investigating a list of people, who we believe have links with this illegal business," said Thomas, who asked that the persons under investigation not be named.
According to Thomas the favorite way for overseas traffickers to smuggle Ecstasy pills and other drugs into Indonesia's big cities is via airports.
This year alone customs officers at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Jakarta have seized a total of 239,048 Ecstasy pills.
The latest big haul was recorded on Dec. 1, when customs officers at the airport arrested two Singaporeans for trying to smuggle 70,431 Ecstasy pills into Jakarta.
"We strongly believe that traffickers must use seaports as their other favorite alternative means of smuggling drugs into our country," Thomas said.
Customs officers have been assigned since early this year to keep a watchful eye on any possible drug trafficking through cargo shipment at seaports, he said.
"But there's no single discovery so far," Thomas said. (bsr)