Iranians in drug smuggling bust

The police say narcotics officers arrested three Iranian citizens on Friday for allegedly smuggling 15,000 doses of  crystal methamphetamine worth about Rp 1.5 billion ($US175,500) into Indonesia.

Jakarta Police narcotics chief Sr. Comr Nugroho Aji Wijayanto said the suspects, identified as MA, MDZ and SK, were allegedly part of a Iranian drug network.

“The crystal methamphetamine was made in Iran and brought to Indonesia by the three suspects on Qatar Airlines,” Nugroho said Monday as quoted by kompas.com.

The suspects had swallowed a total of 159 small plastic bags of crystal meth to evade detection, he said.

“We trailed them from the airport. They took a taxi to their hotel in Senen  [Central Jakarta] where they took out the crystal meth,” Nugroho said.

Officers then raided the suspects’ hotel room.

The police would investigate the suspects’ local contacts, he said.