Soekarno-Hatta Airport Reports Biggest Drug Catch
Tempo Interactive, Friday, 19 February, 2010 | 20:25 WIB
TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta: About 9,5 kilograms of methamphetamine had been seized by customs officials at Soekarno Hatta Airport and one Iranian arrested in the biggest drug bust at the airport to date, authorities said on Friday (19/2).
The drug came in on February 12th through Etihad Airways' EY 472 flight cargo from Teheran, packed in about eight packages of marble home decorations. But the bust was not made until an Iranian picked up the packages at the airport on on February 18th.
A local aviation company PT JAS according to authorities handled the ground and cargo service for the packages.
Head of the Enforcement and Investigation Section of the Customs Office Gatot Sugeng Wibowo said 9,56 kilograms of methamphetamine found stuffed inside the marble decorations with a total weight of 1,200 kilograms.
Baduri Wijayanta Head of the Soekarno-Hatta Customs Office said it was the biggest drug smuggling scheme through cargo in the history of the Customs Office, estimated to worth around Rp20 billion.
Authorities have detected the drugs since its arrival and began to watch closely on every Iranian arriving at the airport. Five days after the packages arrived an Iranian arrived on a Qatar Airways and came to claim the package on February 17th.
The suspect identified as Mehdi Tajbakhsh Valadi could not complete the pick up on the same day as he was in short of cash, and returned on Freburay 18th to complete the pick up.
Methamphetamine is a category I drug under Indonesian law which bears a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison or death penalty for cases involving more than five grams of the drug.
JONIANSYAH | AYU CIPTA
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