Taiwanese nabbed with cocaine

JAKARTA (JP): Military police arrested a Taiwanese national in a hotel room in North Jakarta yesterday for possessing one kilogram of cocaine worth about Rp 2 billion (US$740,740).

Military Police Chief Maj. Gen. Syamsu D. said the man, identified as Huang Chao Tsung, 49, was believed to have planned to smuggle the cocaine from here to Taiwan.

"The man confessed that he got an order from another Taiwanese man named Wang Ko Chen in his country to bring the drug from the hotel to Taiwan," Syamsu said. Wang visited the same hotel in July.

He said Huang intended to hide the cocaine in his artificial right leg to trick airport officials during immigration inspection.

Syamsu said the arrest was conducted after his office received a report about the discovery of suspicious packages of white powder in Room 705 of the Sanno Jakarta Airport hotel on Jl. Pluit Raya Selatan 2A, North Jakarta.

The military police criminal investigation team was then sent to the hotel to investigate the finding and set up a plan to catch the suspect.

Huang checked in at the hotel on Aug. 12 and insisted on taking Room 705, but as planned by the team, he was given another room until yesterday.

Syamsu said the team was still attaching electronic and alarm devices to the packages when the suspect was checking in.

"The suspect was arrested around 10 a:m. today (yesterday), soon after he took the cocaine from the ceiling lamp fitting," he said.

"The alarm set up in Room 703 where the team stayed during the investigation automatically rang when the packages were removed from their hidden place," he said.

The suspect, who held a Republic of China passport number M13940389, claimed it was his first visit to the country.

Syamsu said the suspect also claimed it was a Taiwanese man who instructed him to collect the drug in Jakarta.

"The suspect said Wang would give him $8,000 if he succeeded in smuggling the drug to Taiwan," Syamsu said.

He said the case would be handed over to the national police for further investigation.

In a related development, customs officials at the Soekarno- Hatta International Airport arrested a man Friday for attempting to smuggle 2,891 Ecstasy pills from the Netherlands into the country.

Head of the Airport's Customs Office H. Nisfu Chasbullah said yesterday the suspect, a former member of Garuda Indonesia's Airline crew named He Ro, 28, was arrested with three packages of Ecstasy pills of the Superman, Play Boy, and Pink Jumbo types in his possession.

Nisfu said the suspect, who flew from Paris on flight GA 975 to Jakarta, confessed he was a drug addict. The suspect will be handed over to the city police headquarters. (cst/41)