"There are three suspects, all of them male. They flew on board Air Asia from Kuala Lumpur to Banda Aceh and were caught with 178 grams of methamphetamine on them," said Head of Banda Aceh customs, Abdul Harris, in Banda Aceh, on Thursday.
All three suspects --- 26-year-old SF, 29-year-old RH and 26-year-old TI --- are Indonesian nationals and were arrested at the airport on Wednesday around 2:35 pm.
They were arrested on suspicion of smuggling methamphetamine, inserting the contraband in their bodies. The drug they attempted to smuggle was worth 373 million rupiah.
A customs officers suspicion was aroused at the time of x-ray scan of the cabin and checked-in baggage.
However, when no evidence was detected in the baggage, the officers proceeded to search the suspects who were all booked under the same flight booking number.
"Even though an extensive search led to no indication of drug smuggling, the officers remained highly suspicious of their demeanor," said Harris.
The suspects were then taken to a hospital to go through scanning and to determine if they had any illegal drugs on them.
"The examination found that there were foreign objects in TIs hip cavity. He was then taken to the customs security office for further investigation," he revealed.
At the office, he continued, the foreign object was extracted from TIs body and after an examination, it was revealed that the object was methamphetamine.
"There were three packages. One was extracted in the Bhayangkara hospital. The accumulated weight reached 178 grams," he continued.
After these examinations, SF and RH admitted to have inserted the packages inside their bodies but immediately took them out at the Kuala Lumpur airport as they could not bear the pain.
"All three suspects along with the evidence have been handed over to the Aceh police for further investigation. The suspects have been charged with the Regulation number 17 of 2006 and number 35 of 2009 about illegal drugs," Harris concluded.(*)
Editor: Heru Purwanto
Copyright © ANTARA 2016
