Two Africans arrested for heroin smuggling

TANGERANG (JP): Customs officers at Soekarno-Hatta airport have arrested two African men for attempting to smuggle heroin into the country in the last two days.

Director general of Customs and Excise Permana Agung told a media conference that one of the foreigners was arrested for possession of heroin on Monday after disembarking from a Pakistan Airline plane.

Permana said the man, identified only as "A", claimed to be a businessman. He is still being examined in the airport clinic for allegedly swallowing heroin.

Permana said the other suspect, a 37-year-old South African identified as Zwelibanzi Joseph Mananaman, was arrested on Sunday for attempting to smuggle 1.2 kilograms of heroin worth Rp 1.5 billion (US$157,894).

The suspect was apprehended shortly after he deplaned from Singapore Airlines flight number SQ 152 plying Karachi-Jakarta via Singapore, Permana said.

"Based on profile and behavior analysis, customs officers were suspicious of Mananaman and questioned him," he told reporters.

He said the officers found nothing illegal in Mananaman's luggage then wondered if the man had swallowed something.

Mananaman was taken to the airport's clinic for an X-ray. The examination revealed a number of suspicious objects in his stomach.

For almost 20 hours, the suspect was forced to discharge 60 capsules. There were 15 capsules left when the procedure was stopped.

"The suspect admitted swallowing 75 capsules. We are still trying to get them all out of his stomach" Permana said.

Based on a preliminary test the capsules contained heroin, he said.

If found guilty of attempted drug smuggling, the suspects could be sentenced to death or life imprisonment under Article 82 of Narcotics Law 22/1997.

Last week, officers arrested Nepalese Indra Bahadur Tamang for smuggling 900 grams of heroin. The 21-year-old suspect also was found to have swallowed capsules of heroin.

On Jan. 10, a 30-year-old Nigerian man, Samuel Iwuch Kwuokoje, was arrested at the airport for attempting to smuggle 3.6 kg of heroin. The heroin, worth billions of rupiah, was hidden in a tombstone in the suspect's suitcase. (41/jun)