Smugglers using courier services at airport: Officials

Agents foiled two attempts to use courier services to smuggle drugs through Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Tangerang, Banten, last week, according to an official.

Airport customs office chief Oza Olivia told reporters on Monday that a tactical unit discovered drugs on Jan. 10 when inspecting a wooden box reportedly containing jewelry sent from Abidjan, Ivory Coast, to PY, a 38-year-old man from Bogor, West Java.

“The officers found a secret panel in the box where the smugglers hid 590 grams of crystal methamphetamine worth Rp 1.18 billion [US$128,000],” she said.

Agents from the customs office and the National Narcotics Agency (BNN) later arrested PY at his home.

In as second smuggling case, customs agents found 716 grams of crystal meth worth Rp 1.43 billion on Jan. 12 when inspecting a handbag shipped via courier from Thailand to a woman identified as RY in Makassar, South Sulawesi.

BNN spokesman Dwiyanto Soemirat said that agents learned that RY, who used false identification, was to have delivered the drugs to her husband, KM, 37, and his friend DW, 43 — both currently incarcerated for drug convictions at Sungguminasa Prison in Makassar.

“We worked with the Makassar Police and the Sungguminasa Prison warden and questioned the suspects,” Dwiyanto said.

Oza also said that customs officers also arrested a Malaysia national identified as FEBM, 33, on Jan. 7 for alleged drug possession after he arrived at terminal 3 at the airport from Kuala Lumpur.

“We found a candy box in his luggage that contained 1.6 grams of crystal meth worth Rp 3 million,” she said.

Drug smuggling attempts at the airport have increased following the transfer in 2008 of several Tangerang District Court judges with a reputation for sentencing smugglers to death.

The judges issued numerous death sentences between 2000 and 2005, when drug smuggling was rampant at the airport, after which reported smuggling attempts dropped to zero from 2006 to 2007.

However, following the judges’ departure, officials recorded an increase in smuggling incidents, foiling 16 cases in 2008, 38 cases in 2009 and a staggering 63 cases in 2010.

Fifty-two smuggling cases were reported at the airport in 2011.

“Although the number of drug smuggling cases at Soekarno-Hatta Airport have decreased, there were a total of 148 smuggling cases at airports across the country last year,” Oza said.