Police confiscate 70 kg of marijuana from ship passenger

JAKARTA (JP): Tanjung Priok Port Police arrested a ship passenger arriving from Medan, North Sumatra, for allegedly possessing 70 kilograms of marijuana, police said.

The port police chief, Lt. Col. Arie Soebowo, told reporters that the suspect, identified as Hidayah, 38, was arrested at 10 a.m. soon after disembarking from the Bukit Siguntang passenger ship which plies the Medan-Jakarta route.

Arie said his officers had monitored the suspect for an hour prior to the arrest because he was seen acting nervously when he unloaded his five suitcases from the ship.

"It was strange for a man traveling alone to bring five medium-sized suitcases with him. What would it be for?" he said.

He said the officers did not frisk the suspect immediately at the harbor gate but instead allowed him leave in a taxi.

The suspect was later arrested near the harbor.

"He looked panicked when we asked what was in the suitcases," Arie said.

The suspect reportedly told officers during interrogation that he was just a courier and he knew nothing about the people who ran the drug business.

"That's a clich. All suspects in drug-related crimes always say that they are just couriers, are doing it for money, don't know the supplier or the trafficker and that it was their first experience," he said.

"The man was on his way to Bekasi to deliver the drugs to an accomplice," he said without naming the accomplice.

Arie said his men had been deployed in Bekasi to search for the suspect's friend.

The suspect reportedly said he would be paid Rp 100,000 (US$20) for each kilogram he delivered to his contact in Bekasi.

A kilogram of marijuana had a street value of around Rp 3.5 million, Arie said.

Police claimed yesterday's confiscation was their biggest haul of marijuana this year.

Last month, police confiscated 60 kilograms of Aceh-grown dried marijuana from a man in Depok, West Java.

The marijuana confiscated from Hidayah was also derived from an illegal cannabis plantation in Aceh, Arie said.

But, he said, the confiscated marijuana might only have been a very small part of the total amount now being smuggled to the market.

"It's like an iceberg. We can only see a small part of it and we can't account for the remaining part which is hidden under the sea. It has been estimated that the drugs we confiscate is just a tenth of the total drugs available on the market," he said.

The suspect will be charged under Article 81 of the 1997 Narcotics Law on transporting marijuana. If found guilty, he could face a maximum penalty of ten years in prison and a Rp 500 million fine. (cst)