Drug smugglers nabbed with 7.1 kg of crystal meth

Fadli, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Archipelago | Sun, May 05 2013, 4:06 PM

Officers from the Batam Customs and Excise Office have foiled an attempt by two passengers on a ferry from Johor Bahru, Malaysia, to smuggle 7.1 kilograms of crystal methamphetamine worth Rp 13 billion
(US$1.33 million) into the country.

The passengers, Ahmad Zaenal, 27, and Ali Akbar, 25, were former migrant workers working in Malaysia. Their bags of crystal meth,known locally as shabu-shabu was detected by the harbor’s X-Ray machine.

Batam customs' investigators chief, Slamet Riyadi, said the two would-be drug smugglers, who come from Pamekasan in Madura, East Java, had just finished working as oil palm harvesters in Malaysia.

“They claimed they had no knowledge that the packages were filled with narcotics, saying the packages had been casually entrusted to them along with a payment of a couple million rupiah,” said Riyadi.

“Based on preliminary investigations, the two suspects planned to accompany the packages to Surabaya,” added Riyadi. (asw/dic)