Narcotics detectives seize 1.5 kilograms of heroin
JAKARTA (JP): Narcotics detectives are looking for the owner of a bag shop over the seizure of 1.5 kilograms of heroin addressed to his store at the Mangga Dua shopping center in West Jakarta.
"There has been no progress yet on the whereabouts of the shop owner, whether he is still around here or somewhere in Hong Kong or Singapore," the head of general information affairs at National Police Headquarters, Lt. Col. S. Sidi, told The Jakarta Post yesterday.
He refused to identify the wanted person.
The heroin, dubbed the largest heroin haul seized through the mail in Indonesia, has a street value here of around Rp 450 million (US$173,100).
The alleged suspect is wanted by police following the arrest of his shop attendant, identified only as IY, last Tuesday.
IY was nabbed at the shop selling plastic bags by undercover police detectives, who masqueraded as postmen delivering the three packages. The drugs had been sent via an Express Mail Service from Hong Kong.
Sidi said the sender identified him or herself as P in Kowloon, Hong Kong.
The white powder was packed and sealed in an ordinary way, he said.
"The drugs are packed in a very simple way, which is unusual for us. They look like toys packed as presents."
Sidi said the packages, shipped by Singapore Airlines from Hong Kong were initially noticed by customs officers at Soekarno- Hatta Airport last Tuesday.
Parcels
The director of the smuggling prevention and investigation unit at Indonesian Customs and Excise Office, Thomas Sugijata, said yesterday the parcels were then -- as usual -- taken to the Post Office headquarters in Pasar Baru, Central Jakarta, for further checking.
On the postal receipt, the sender stated that the packages contained merchandise samples, said Sugijata.
After being informed that the content was heroin, the customs officers contacted the narcotics detectives.
According to Sidi, the attendant probably knew nothing about the content of the packages.
"We strongly believe the attendant is just an unwitting accomplice.
"He said he was just ordered by his boss, who is now wanted, to keep the packages once they arrived," the officer said.
The country's 1976 Law on Narcotics carries a maximum penalty of death for trafficking heroin.
Similar packages containing heroin and other drugs mailed from overseas have been discovered in Jakarta and other big cities in Indonesia since 1995.
However, none of the suspects, including the recipients here, have confessed to committing any crimes. They only said that the packages were incorrectly addressed to them and they had no idea as to the senders' identities.
Last year, for example, data from Sugijata's office revealed that at least 1.8 kilograms of heroin and 115,874 Ecstasy pills were seized by customs officers nationwide.
Sugijata said that airmailing drugs was probably the second most popular means, after delivering in person, for overseas traffickers to smuggle drugs into Indonesia.
On July 17, 1996, a parcel of one kilogram of heroin mailed from Bangkok was seized by Pasar Baru postal workers. Three weeks later, workers at the same post office confiscated 300 grams of heroin packed in a black map posted from Bangkok. (bsr)