Iranian arrested for drug smuggling
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Wed, 09/21/2011 7:23 PM
Customs and Excise officers at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport have foiled an attempt to smuggle nine kilograms of crystal methamphetamine (shabu-shabu) worth Rp 18 billion (US$20 million) inside two packages of oxygen canisters and have arrested an Iranian national.
“The suspect came from Iran on Sept.17,” the chief of investigation section of the customs office, Sugeng Wibowo, said on Wednesday as quoted by Tempointeraktif.com.
He said that the packages were sent on Sept.10, meanwhile the suspect, identified as R. Sarlakian, flew from Iran and arrived at the airport on an Emirates flight seven days later.
Sugeng explained that the suspect, who admitted working as a diving maintenance-officer, wanted to pick up his packages on Sept.19. But, the officers found some crystals inside the diving equipment, and laboratory tests indicated that it was crystal methamphetamine.
“We have already handed over the suspect and the evidence to the National Narcotics Agency (BNN),” he said.
The suspect later confessed that he had received an order to smuggle the drug into Jakarta and was promised $10,000 when the delivery was made.
Drug smugglers can be charged with violating Article 113 of the 2009 Law on drugs and narcotics, which carries a maximum penalty of a death sentence.
