JAKARTA: Despite the threat of the death penalty that’s supposed to deter drug smugglers, the fact remains that people are still trying all sorts of methods to bring drugs into the country.
MA, a 32-year-old Tanzanian woman, was arrested by Soekarno-Hatta Airport Customs after she was found to have swallowed over Rp 1 billion worth in heroin and meth in an attempt to get smuggle the narcotics into the country.
On July 4, MA arrived in Jakarta from Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, after flying on a Qatar Airways flight. Officers began to suspect her when she started acting strangely as she was heading towards the airport terminal’s exit.
She was then taken to an investigation room. Eventually, she was x-rayed and the officers spotted 32 capsules containing heroin and meth inside her stomach.
“It took two days to get all of the capsules out of her body,” said Dwijo Muryono, head of the Services Office at Soekarno-Hatta airport, as quoted by Tempo yesterday.
In all, MA carried 414 grams of heroin and 126 grams of meth. The drugs were estimated to be worth Rp 1.08 billion.
MA admitted that she was promised Rp 90 million to smuggle the drugs into Indonesia. She was supposed to hand the drugs over to a Nigerian man, identified by the initial N, who is still being hunted by the police.
MA, like all drug smugglers in Indonesia, could face the death penalty for her crime.
