International narcotic smuggling networks have been noted to be busier as the end of the year approaches because demands for narcotic increase as people ring in the new year.
According to a local authority from the police headquarters, Kompol Dodi Suryadi, four foreigners have been caught smuggling drugs for the New Year festivities.
Dodi claimed smuggling cases do not only occur in crowded capitals and its surrounding areas, but in almost all parts of Indonesia.
“With the cases we saw, there was news of drug smuggling in Sumatra, Java, and East Indonesia. It also doesn’t just happen at airports, but sea and land transportation routes too,” Dodi said.
The four foreigners in question, who are currently in police custody, are believed to be involved in an international smuggling network.
“A network of Indian, Chinese, Malaysian, and even French are usually discovered. The French, for instance, are known to send packages that are found in Soekarno-Hatta Airport’s cargo area,” Dodi added.
Perpetrators don’t work alone, but in groups; there could be around three to four people in a plane who supervise an operation to ensure the drugs are safe to pass security.
In this case, the perpetrator claimed to be the only courier and was paid US$800 for one shipment. Head of Main Service Office Customs Type C Soekarno-Hatta Airport, Finari Manaan said, “A suspected perpetrator, a woman with the initials MA (62), hid methamphetamine on her chest and in her underwear.”
“There were 47 pieces of methamphetamine weighing 800 grams. A total of 20 pieces were hidden on her chest whilst a further 27 of them were hidden in her underwear. This Ghanaian woman confessed that she was asked by her drug dealer to swallow the drugs and then release them through her faeces, but she chose to stuff them in her undergarments instead,” elaborated Finari.
The three other male perpetrators hid the drugs inside their carry-on and cabin bags. This group has now been charged under Law No. 35 of 2009 concerning narcotics with the threat of capital punishment or life imprisonment.
Finari added that the narcotics smuggled by this group added up to 2,035 ecstasy pills, 1,883 grams of methamphetamine, and 965 grams of ketamine.
Source: Kompas
Image: Free Malaysia Today