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Thai drug smuggler busted at Medan airport
Drug mule: A Thai drug smuggling suspect covers her face during a press conference at the Medan Customs and Excise Office on Friday
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Drug mule: A Thai drug smuggling suspect covers her face during a press conference at the Medan Customs and Excise Office on Friday. The woman had hidden the drugs internally, the first smuggling of this kind in Medan. (JP/Apriadi Gunawan) (JP/Apriadi Gunawan)
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span class="inline inline-none">Drug mule: A Thai drug smuggling suspect covers her face during a press conference at the Medan Customs and Excise Office on Friday. The woman had hidden the drugs internally, the first smuggling of this kind in Medan. (JP/Apriadi Gunawan)
The Medan Customs and Excise Office in North Sumatra announced on Friday it had arrested a Thai woman at the airport attempting to smuggle crystal methamphetamine into the country by hiding it internally and in the soles of her shoes.
The customs office said this was the first time it had encountered a woman trying to smuggle drugs internally.
Medan Customs Office Investigation and Enforcement section head Ahmad Fatoni said officials discovered the drugs after noticing an AirAsia passenger from Kuala Lumpur acting suspiciously upon arriving at Kuala Namu International Airport in Deli Serdang regency on Wednesday.
Fatoni said upon inspection, officers found the crystal meth hidden inside the soles of the suspect's shoes.
The officers then noticed the 27-year-old suspect fidgeting conspicuously, especially in the lower part of her body.
Fatoni said female officers took the suspect to the bathroom to be examined.
'Crystal meth, wrapped in a 10-centimeter condom, was found [inside her],' Fatoni told the media at the Medan Customs and Excise Office on Friday.
Fatoni said that in a lab test, the substance was positively identified as crystal meth weighing 579.6 grams. Fatoni said the value of the contraband was estimated at Rp 1.2 billion (US$105,147).
Fatoni also said the drug bust was the fifth carried out by his office this year. He said all the cases had been handed over to the police for investigation, including the recent case.
North Sumatra Customs and Excise Investigation and Enforcement division head Imron said each drug smuggler caught by customs officers in Medan had concealed drugs in a different place.
'The mode of drug trafficking always changes as drug syndicates continue to carry out research on how to trick officers,' said Imron.
Meanwhile, North Sumatra Police narcotics unit chief Comr. P. Panjaitan said the trafficking case involving the Thai woman was still being developed.
He acknowledged that investigators were having difficulties getting information from the suspect as she could only speak Thai.
Panjaitan said investigators suspected the woman was a drug mule working for an international drug syndicate, based on a text message in the woman's phone from an unknown party asking the suspect to smuggle the drugs into Medan.
Panjaitan said police had replied to the text message but had received no response.
Other foreign drug smugglers have been arrested at Medan's new airport this year.
In March, the police arrested a Pakistani man, Muhammad Rafige, who had swallowed 76 capsules containing nearly a kilogram of heroin. Rafige had collapsed upon arriving at the Kuala Namu airport from Jakarta. Officers took them to a nearby hospital and found the drugs after an X-ray.
