Dumai Customs nab runner carrying drugs, heroin

Busted: Courier SRS shows the confiscated drugs during a press conference held by the Dumai Customs and Excise Office on Sunday. SRS was caught carrying 1,385 grams of acetaminophen and heroin possibly worth Rp 2.77 billion (US$308,377). (JP/Rizal Harahap)

The Dumai Customs and Excise Office foiled Saturday an attempt to smuggle acetaminophen and heroin with a total weight of 1,385 grams which had been carried by a female runner from Port Klang, Malaysia. The value of the contraband was estimated to be Rp 2.77 billion (US$308,377).

The runner, SRS, 34, was arrested Saturday afternoon after disembarking from the Indomal Ekspress 3 ferry which had just arrived in Dumai Port. Customs officers noticed a suspicious package when her luggage was scanned through an X-Ray machine.

The customs office, however, refused to provide any official statement regarding the matter on Saturday, but held a press conference on Sunday.

“We are not concealing the case, but the confiscated goods have to be tested first at our laboratory in Cempaka Putih,” Dumai Customs and Excise Office head Dwi Teguh Wibowo told the media.
“The results confirmed the goods are acetaminophen and heroin,” he said.

He said the drugs were packed in four separate packages consisting of one package of acetaminophen weighing 706 grams and three packages of heroin totaling 679 grams.

“The drugs have a street value of about Rp 2 million (US$222.65) per gram,” he said.

Teguh said the runner had been handed over to the Dumai Police because the drugs she carried weighed more than one kilogram, for which the maximum punishment is life.

The runner, he said, was a resident of Cipondoh in Tangerang, Banten, and planned to bring the drugs to Jakarta. “Riau is only a transit place.”

“We will strengthen the supervision of vessels coming from abroad because Dumai has become one of the main gateways for drug shipments,” Teguh said.

“We will also help the investigation of the drugs to find the owner and not merely the runner.”