The dug appeared to be of a different variant compared with the usual substances found in Asian-produced drugs.

Police made the arrest following a tip off from the Soekarno-Hatta Airport Customs and Excise Office that narcotics might be smuggled through the airport to be distributed in Jakarta particularly in West Jakarta, West Jakarta Police chief Sr. Comr. Hengki Haryadi said.

Police detained the suspects in separate arrests, He said. Three suspects, a Chinese national identified as Cui Ming, 26, Dasuki, 42, and Budi Supriyanto, 52, were arrested at Daan Mogot Post Office on April 11 while another suspect— also a Chinese national— named Li Xiufen, 22, was apprehended at the FedEx Delivery service parking lot in Tebet, South Jakarta, on April 30.

“They were tasked with making sure that the narcotics arrived,” Hengki told reporters at West Jakarta Police headquarters on Thursday.

Based on initial investigations, the crystal methamphetamine was found to have originated in the US.

“So we informed the US Drug Enforcement Administration [DEA] that there would be another shipment coming to Jakarta through the airport,” he said.

The US DEA then confiscated 12 kilograms of crystal meth at a post office in Los Angeles, California, he added.

The smuggling scheme used a new modus operandi and was believed to have been a test run for a new drug route, Hengki said.

Soekarno-Hatta airport Customs and Excise Office head Erwin Situmorang said crystal meth usually came from other Asian countries such as China, Malaysia or Thailand as well as some African countries like Nigeria.

“We were not really expecting packages shipped from the US as we thought that was unlikely,” he said.

He said the suspects falsified the documentation to pass the security checks at the airport.

The first batch of the drugs was carried by Cui Ming, hidden inside 19 Starbucks ground coffee sachets with a total weight of 6 kg. Li Xiufen, meanwhile, picked up four tightly packed drug packages amounting to 10 kilograms shipped from the US.

“In the cargo documents they said the packages were Starbucks coffee packs, which is a very American brand” he added.

The National Police Forensics Laboratory Center Narcotics Division head Sr. Comr. Sodiq Pratomo said the seized drugs were found to be made of phenylacetone with 71 percent purity and the drugs were of good quality.

Crystal meth from Asia is commonly made from ephedrine with up to 84 percent purity.

Despite the drugs coming from the US, the police believe that the network is controlled from China, given the role of the two Chinese suspects, believed to have been sent directly to oversee the delivery. Drug smugglers do not usually send representatives of the sellers to secure shipments, Hengki said.

Li Xiufen said at the press conference on Thursday that she and Cui Ming were sent to secure the packages. Their tickets and accommodation were covered by their superiors.

She said that they were each promised 30,000 Chinese yuan (US$4,409).

Soekarno-Hatta Customs and Excise Office head of patrols and operation Anton said the shipment from the US was designed to avoid suspicion, as authorities are more attuned to smuggling from other Asian countries.

Erick said the police were still researching the market price of the US-origin meth compared with Asian variants.

The police have contacted the Chinese Embassy regarding the two Chinese suspects. They will not be deported but will be tried according to Indonesian law, and the Chinese authorities will follow up the case in China, he added.

The police are expected to charge the suspects under the 2009 Narcotics Law.

Popular

PDI-P will likely be part of opposition: Ganjar

Indonesia one step from Olympics after beating South Korea

Bahlil leads task force to boost sugar, bioethanol production in Papua