Caught red-handed: Two suspected drug smugglers are shown to the press at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport on Monday. The suspects, both Iranian nationals, were caught with Rp 2.1 billion worth of crystal meth on Sunday. JP/Multa Fidrus
An anti-drug task force at the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport managed to foil attempts to smuggle crystal methamphetamine worth Rp 2.1 billion and arrested two Iranian men on Sunday.
Bahaduri Wijayanta, chief of the airport customs office, identified the two men as Muhamad Reza Ashabi, 25, a shoe salesman, and Abdullah Haidar, 34, a taxi driver in Tehran.
The two suspects arrived at terminal II D on Sunday evening with Qatar Airways on flight QR 638, having flown from Tehran via Doha and Singapore.
Both Ashabi and Haidar were promised US$3,000 if they managed to deliver the drugs to a person in Jakarta, who is still at large.
“As of today, we have arrested 28 Iranians for smuggling drugs into the country through the airport this year,” Bahaduri said in a press conference Monday.
A joint task force, with members from the Customs and Excise Office, the National Police, the National Narcotics Agency (BNN), and the Immigration Office, has been established to fight drug smuggling.
Officers found 101 capsules swallowed by the smugglers, which contained 948 grams of crystal meth.
“Forty Iranians have been apprehended for smuggling drugs into Indonesia during the past two months.
“Seven were nabbed at Ngurah Rai International Airport in Denpasar, Bali, four others were caught at Juanda Airport in Surabaya, East Java while the remainder were arrested at the Soekarno-Hatta,” Bahaduri said.
Meanwhile, BNN spokesman Sumirat Dwiyanto said that the Indonesian and Iranian governments
had signed a Memorandum of Understanding on cooperation with a view to the prevention of drug smuggling.
Bahaduri said the two Iranians will quite likely face the death penalty for smuggling the drugs.
On Dec. 13, seven Iranian men were also nabbed at the airport where drugs had been swallowed in capsules. Officers found the capsules in the men’s stomachs.
— JP/Multa Fidrus
