Nigerian man arrested for heroin smuggling

TANGERANG (JP): Customs officers at the Soekarno-Hatta airport arrested a 30-year-old Nigerian man for attempting to smuggle 3.8 kilograms of pure heroin into the country, an official announced on Wednesday.

Director general of Customs and Excise Permana Agung said Samuel Iwuch Kwuokoje was apprehended on Tuesday shortly after customs officers discovered the heroin -- which has an estimate street value of some Rp 4 billion (US$419,950) -- hidden in a green suitcase and a black carry bag.

Agung said Samuel was the only Nigerian in the Garuda Indonesia flight from Singapore which landed at 9 a.m. on Tuesday.

"Customs officers became suspicious because Samuel had been looking nervous after alighting the aircraft and he became more so when the officers started checking his bags and passport," Agung told a media conference at the airport.

This was the African's second trip to Indonesia.

Agung said officers found one packet of heroin in his green suitcase, and three packets of heroin stuffed in the sides and inside of his black carry bag.

"We strongly suspect that he is a drug dealer and has contacts with other drug dealers in the capital," Agung said.

Agung added that Samuel arrived in Singapore from Madras, India.

"Samuel told us that he was aware of the death penalty for convicted drugs smugglers in Indonesia," Agung said.

Director of the Narcotics Unit at National Police Headquarters Comr. Ahmad Chaidir said police had impounded the illegal substance.

In his African language, Samuel said he wished he would only be sentenced to a 20-year jail term when the Tangerang District Court hears his case.

Paragraph 1a of Article 82 of the Anti-Drug Law No. 22/1997 carries the death sentence or a 20-year jail term for drug smugglers.

Tangerang District Court sentenced, on Aug. 22 last year, three local cocaine dealers, two of them young women, to death.

In January, February and August, the same court also handed down death sentences to five foreign drug traffickers, four of them Nepalese and one Angolan. (41/ylt)