The head of the supervision and service of the Banda Aceh customs and excise service, Beni Novri, said here on Thursday that a suspect was arrested minutes after the plane landed, along with illegal drugs, on Wednesday.
The illegal drugs, weighing 229.2 grams, was valued at Rp500 million and found on the suspect`s body.
"Around 1pm on Wednesday customs officers became suspicious of an Air Asia passenger from Kuala Lumpur, known by his initials as ND, age 38," he said.
He added that customs officers checked ND`s baggage, but did not find illegal drugs. However, when the suspect was scanned in a hospital in Banda Aceh, five round white shapes were detected in his body.
The customs officers and medical personnel of the hospital later removed the small containers, which were found to contain methamphetamine.
ND is reported to be a resident of North Aceh. He was later handed over to police, along with the confiscated drugs, two cell phones, Indonesian rupiahs, and Malaysian ringgits.
The police are investigating the incident and seeking to discover who was the supplier of the drugs.
Beni said the Banda Aceh customs service aborted two attempts to smuggle methamphetamine from Malaysia in 2009 and one attempt in 2010, 2011 and 2012.(*)
Editor: Heru Purwanto
Copyright © ANTARA 2012
