DJBC and BNN have succeeded in unveiling a network of smugglers trying to smuggle 15,487 ecstasy pills from Belgium, Director General of Customs and Excises Heru Pambudi said.
"Earlier they already sent in to Indonesia in big volume and this time they sent in from Belgium via post office in four small parcels at the same time," Heru Pambudi told reporters here on Monday.
The operations were controlled by the same person belonging to an old syndicate, he said.
He said the case was unveiled when the customs officers were suspicious and opened the packages and found the illicit drugs.
There were four parcels respectively containing 3,080 ecstasy pills, 3,163 pills, 2,993 pills and 3,268 pills. It was confirmed as ecstasy pills only after being examined at a laboratory of DJBC, he said.
The parcels were sent in via four separate post offices in Bogor, Cikarang, Sukajadi, and Leuwipanjang.
From the result of "controlled delivery" in the four locations , a joint team of the BNN and the customs arrested 10 suspects including two convicts at the Salemba penitentiary of Jakarta.
The team also confiscated another parcel containing ecstasy pills addressed to a person in West Jakarta. Examination found 65 packs of 1,986 ecstasy pills camouflaged as candies, and a tube also containing ecstasy in 997 pills. The law officers arrested three suspects in this operation.
Heru said the cases added to a long list of drug cases unveiled by the customs office. So far this year, the Customs and Excise office has foiled 192 attempts to smuggle 3,559 tons of illicit drugs into the country.
The number of cases are smaller than 346 cases in 2017 with 2,139 tons of drugs to be smuggled into the country.
Reporter: Saragih
Editor: Otniel Tamindael
Copyright © ANTARA 2018
