Passengers caught with marijuana

JAKARTA (JP): Tanjung Priok Port police have arrested two ship passengers arriving from Tanjung Pinang, Riau, for allegedly possessing 5.4 kilograms of marijuana, police said yesterday.

Chief of the port police, Lt. Col. Edy Kuncoro, said the two were arrested Wednesday at about 3 p.m. soon after they disembarked from the passenger ship Umsini, which plies the Tanjung Pinang-Jakarta route.

Edy said the two, identified as Zaini, 27, and Zulkifli, 32, had allegedly attempted to smuggle the Aceh-grown marijuana here.

A kilogram of marijuana has a street value of about Rp 3.5 million (US$700).

The two men were caught during an operation in which police checked all passengers of ships arriving at the port, said Edy.

"This was the first raid performed inside the customs area. Usually we only perform operations like this on the streets around the port," Edy said.

He said similar operations would be held frequently because police believed that attempts to smuggle drugs through the port would increase since security was rigid at the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport.

According to Edy, the marijuana was found in a suitcase in the possession of Zaini.

"At first, we only detained Zaini because the drugs were found with him," Edy said.

"In the beginning, we had no hard evidence on Zulkifli who traveled with Zaini from Tanjung Pinang. But Zaini latter claimed that the drugs actually belonged to Zulkifli," said the officer.

Last week, the port police reported that they seized 70 kilograms of marijuana from a man who had traveled from the North Sumatra capital of Medan on the passenger ship Bukit Siguntang.

Those drugs were also believed to have been planted in Aceh, in the northern tip of Sumatra.

Edy said the suspect, Hidayah, claimed he was supposed to deliver the drugs to a contact person in Bekasi, West Java.

"We've traced the person to Bekasi, but he has moved to another rented house. Now we have to collect more information before searching for the alleged contact again," he said.

All the three suspects would be charged under Article 81 of the 1997 Narcotics Law No. 22 on the transportation of marijuana. If found guilty, the suspects could receive a maximum sentence of 15 years in jail and a Rp 750 million fine, said Edy. (cst)