Suspected smuggler not S. African

JAKARTA (JP): A man arrested for smuggling 320 grams of morphine on Jan. 8 is not a South African citizen as reported, the South African embassy said.

The embassy said on Tuesday that after checking passport details and the suspect's fingerprints, the embassy determined the suspect was not a South African citizen.

"The passport he was using was the passport reportedly stolen some months earlier," the embassy said.

According to Soekarno-Hatta International Airport Customs and Excise officers, Lombane Cosbane was arrested with 25 capsules of morphine.

The airport customs and excise office chief Nisfu Chasbullah, said the man swallowed 11 capsules and kept the remaining 14 capsules in his jeans.

The suspect collapsed at the airport soon after he arrived from Bangkok via Singapore. Chasbullah said some of the capsules the suspect had swallowed probably leaked causing him to collapse.

The embassy said that new South African passports had certain identifications and only authorities could determine its authenticity.

The identifications made it difficult for anybody to forge or tamper.

The embassy said that so far the measures have been successful in curbing frauds involving South African passports. (sur)