Nepalese nabbed for heroin in condoms

JAKARTA (JP): The Soekarno-Hatta international airport authorities have arrested a 30-year-old Nepalese with three heroin filled condoms in his stomach.

The suspect, identified only as JY, is now being treated at the Police Hospital in Kramat Jati, East Jakarta.

Pos Kota quoted a police officer as saying yesterday that airport authorities arrested the Nepalese on Saturday shortly after he disembarked from a plane.

The daily said the airport authorities were suspicious of the man, who reportedly staggered in a corridor before toppling over in a drugged state near the departure hall's exit.

The daily gave no details of the suspect's point of departure nor the name of the airline he flew.

The daily said the suspect had probably realized the authorities were waiting for him and he decided to immediately swallow the three condoms, all of which were loaded with heroin capsules, in an attempt to avoid detection. But one of the condoms split in his stomach.

"He may have swallowed the capsules soon after he saw us," an officer said.

An X-ray picture taken at the Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital, the first hospital the Nepalese was taken to, showed a total of 103 capsules filled with heroin in the suspect's stomach. (bsr)