Nervy behavior tipped off customs officers in Nepalese drug arrests

TANGERANG (JP): Customs officers at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport arrested four Nepalese for suspected drug trafficking because of their suspicious behavior during customs checks, a senior official said on Monday.

Head of the airport's customs service office Tonny Soenanto told a news conference that two Nepalese were arrested last Friday with 1.764 kilograms of heroin in their stomachs after they disembarked from a Singapore Airlines flight.

Two others were caught a day earlier with 365 grams of heroin.

The two arrested on Friday, identified as Til Bahadur Bhandari, 24, and Bahadur Gurung, 32, tried to bribe the officials with US$4,000 after they were detained, Tonny said.

"This shows that they were paid well for smuggling the drugs into Indonesia."

On Thursday, the airport police arrested the two other Nepalese with heroin inside their stomachs shortly after they disembarked from a Thai Airways flight from Bangkok.

Airport police officers became suspicious when the Nepalese trembled during the customs check.

Officials were dissatisfied with their answers and detected an unusual odor from urine samples. They suspected the Nepalese swallowed heroin capsules and took them to the Police Hospital in East Jakarta for stomach scans.

Tonny said the arrests were proof that drug traffickers were hiring Asians instead of Africans in their operations in an attempt to deceive law enforcement officials.

The Nepalese used tourist visas.

Tonny said the four alleged traffickers used higher quality plastic to wrap the drug to prevent it from bursting inside their stomachs.

In the last six months, he added, airport officers confiscated at least 30 unlicensed weapons, all of which were submitted to Jakarta Police Headquarters for further investigation.

The weapon owners included Indonesian citizens and expatriates. Most of them explained they were carrying the weapons for self-defense because of the worsening security situation in the country.

Since January, the customs office at the airport reported the seizure of 6.575 kilograms of heroin, 49,020 ecstasy pills, 2.610 kilograms of shabu-shabu (crystal methamphetamine), 42 grams of cocaine, 30 weapons, 1,884 pornographic VCDs and Rp 7.08 billion in cash. (41/04)