Man arrested with 25,750 Ecstasy pills

JAKARTA (JP): Police have detained a man for allegedly being involved in the smuggling of 25,750 Ecstasy pills and 15 grams of Ecstasy powder from Europe to Indonesia, a customs official said yesterday.

The head of Soekarno-Hatta International Airport's Customs Inspection Office, Nisfu Chasbullah, said the man, identified only as ST, was arrested on Aug. 31 when he arrived at Terminal D to pick up an abandoned suitcase which contained drugs.

During questioning, ST claimed that he was only acting as a courier. He said his boss, identified as AS, asked him to retrieve the suitcase from the airport.

Nisfu said: "The police are still looking for AS who is alleged to be the main suspect and owner of the illicit drugs."

He said it was believed that AS carried the suitcase on board the Singapore Airlines flight from Brussels to Jakarta via Copenhagen and Singapore on Aug. 24.

"The suitcase was left at the arrival terminal and kept by customs officers at the lost and found section after no one claimed it as their own."

The customs officers suspected that the suitcase contained some illicit drugs after an X-ray inspection.

Nisfu said the drugs were hidden in the bottom of the suitcase and the pills were covered with fiberglass and aluminum foil.

He said the confiscated drugs constituted his office's biggest haul of smuggled Ecstasy pills this year.

"So far this year we have confiscated a total of 320 grams of morphine, 2.98 kilograms of hashish and 43,481 Ecstasy pills -- including the latest seized pills -- smuggled through the airport."

The total haul was confiscated from three foreigners holding South African, Nepalese and Singaporean passports as well as two Indonesians, he said.

Transaction

In an unrelated incident, two other men were also arrested in Central Jakarta on Monday for allegedly trying to sell more than 300 Ecstasy pills worth about Rp 15 million (US$5,000).

City Police spokesman Lt. Col. E. Aritonang said yesterday that one of the two suspects, Franky, 26, was shot in the leg during the raid because he attacked police and tried to flee.

Franky and his accomplice Edi, 21, were arrested on Jl. Batu Tulis, Gambir, about 1 p.m. while making a deal with undercover officers.

"Franky was in such a panic, when he realized that he had sold the drugs to undercover cops, that he picked up a table leg and threw it toward the officer before running away," Aritonang said. "The undercover officer had no choice but to shoot him."

He said that both Franky and Edi were believed to have been selling drugs for a while.

Aritonang said the police were still interrogating the two men for details on their operation and network.

The confiscated Ecstasy pills -- Sun and Superman brands -- were all sealed in small plastic bags with 10 pills per pack.

This type of Ecstasy pill has a street value of about Rp 50,000.

Aritonang said that people involved in Ecstasy trafficking violated Article 59 of the 1997 Psychotropic Law Number 5 for illegally using, possessing, producing and distributing drugs.

If found guilty, an offender faces four to 15 years imprisonment and a fine ranging from Rp 150 million to Rp 750 million. (cst/41)