Trial of drug smuggler begins

TANGERANG (JP): Tangerang District Court in Banten commenced on Thursday the trial of a man charged with being part of an operation to smuggle 40 kilograms of shabu-shabu (crystal amphetamine) worth Rp 12 billion from Hong Kong.

State prosecutor Asnawi told the court in the indictment that Robert, alias Kenken, 32, was caught by police at Ibis Dua Hotel parking lot in West Jakarta on Nov. 2, 2000.

The defendant, the prosecutor said, was arrested when he was about to pick up the contraband at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport as instructed by the sender, identified as Mr. Chaike from Hong Kong.

According to Asnawi the shabu-shabu was kept in a gravestone which was sent to Indonesia on Oct. 30 of last year.

Two men identified as Tony Setiawan and Hermansyah promised to help the defendant pick up the 'gravestone' at the airport.

"The defendant neither saw Tony and Hermansyah nor the gravestone," the prosecutor said, adding that the airport's tax and excise officers had already examined the gravestone and found that it contained some 40 kilograms of shabu-shabu.

The defendant left the airport and was caught at the hotel parking lot. He faces a maximum five-year jail term. (41/sur)