B

atam Customs and Excise officers at Hang Nadim International Airport in Batam, Riau Islands, foiled on Saturday an attempt to smuggle 8.47 kilograms of crystal methamphetamine, locally known as shabu-shabu. The illegal drugs were found in a box inside a backpack.

The backpack owner, who was thought to have arrived from Malaysia, fled when officers detected the Rp 12.7 billion (US$1.3 million) worth of drugs.

Batam Customs and Excise Office investigation and law enforcement head, Kunto Prasti Trenggono, told The Jakarta Post on Sunday that the drugs had been detected in a routine X-ray check, during which a lunch box in the backpack had aroused suspicion.

“We then checked the backpack manually and found 8.47 kg of shabu-shabu worth around Rp 12.7 billion. The drugs allegedly came from Malaysia,” said Kunto.

He said that the owner of the backpack disappeared when it was being inspected. The officers then checked the passenger list of a Batam-Surabaya flight and CCTV footage to identify the bag’s owner. However, they failed to identify the alleged smuggler.

Kunto said officers checked the passenger list of the Batam–Surabaya flight because the bag was taken to the X-ray machine by the owner at the same time as other passengers’ luggage from that flight.

“We have handed over the case to the police for follow-up,” said Kunto.

The Batam Customs and Excise Office has foiled a number of attempts to smuggle drugs, such as crystal meth and ecstasy, from Malaysia through border areas such as Batam, Bintan and Karimun.

At several ferry terminals in Johor Bahru, such as the Zon ferry port in Stulang Laut serving the Batam–Stulang Laut and Pasir Gudang routes in Johor Bahru, the Post saw no X-ray machines to check the luggage of passengers departing on ferries from the most populous city in southern Malaysia to Indonesia.

Unlike at departure points, belongings of passengers arriving at Indonesian ports are checked by X-ray machines. The lax inspections of luggage carried by passengers leaving Malaysia are viewed as a leading problem enabling the flow of drugs, allegedly produced in Malaysia, into Batam.

In the past few months, Indonesian officials have nabbed drug couriers passing through a number of international airports across the archipelago.

In October 2012, an Indonesian woman, Rosmalinda Sinaga, was arrested at Ahmad Yani International Airport in Semarang, Central Java, while trying to smuggle 4.5 kg of heroin and 3.24 kg of crystal meth worth Rp 16.11 billion into the country.

Rosmalinda, who said she had been promised Rp 20 million for transporting narcotics from the Philippines and Singapore to Indonesia, was recently sentenced to life imprisonment.

In Yogyakarta, the customs office also arrested a woman, identified as N, in her attempt to smuggle crystal meth and heroin worth Rp 2.7 billion at Adi Sucipto airport. The officials found a package containing 213 grams of crystal meth and 1,174 grams of heroin in her suitcase.