JAKARTA: Indonesian authorities have nabbed a Tanzanian woman and a Nigerian man and shot dead another man from Nigeria who were reportedly members of a Malaysia-based drug ring as they tried to smuggle marijuana and crystal methamphetamine into Indonesia, an official said on Friday (06/01).
Customs officials at Jakarta’s Soekarno-Hatta International Airport had arrested the Tanzanian woman whose name has not been unannounced as he arrived from Kuala Lumpur in the early hours of Wednesday. The officials confiscated 138 grams of crystal meth hidden in 20 capsules and three grams of marijuana tucked into her underpants, and 66 more capsules of crystal meth that she had swallowed.
“We arrested the woman after conducting data screening,” Customs and Excise director general Heru Pambudi said, adding that the Tanzanian woman had traveled to Indonesia on her boyfriend’s instructions, a Uganda national in Malaysia.
Customs officials later teamed up with police officers to arrest two Nigerian men who were going to receive the drugs from the woman at a restaurant in Central Jakarta. Both men were allegedly part of the Malaysia-based drug ring. They resisted the police’s attempt to arrest them and tried to flee the scene, prompting officers to shoot.
One of the men died at the scene. The Indonesian police have reportedly turned their attention to the Malaysian drug ring lately.
“Better data and information exchange with the Customs Office has helped us enormously in investigating the Malaysian drug ring,” National Police Chief Gen. Tito Karnavian said.
The police and Customs officials have foiled 673 drug smuggling attempts into Indonesia between 2014 and 2017, and seized more than 2,000 kilograms of drugs.
