Tangerang, Banten (ANTARA News) - Customs authorities at the Soekarno-Hatta Airport have since early this year caught 21 Indonesian citizens for attempting to smuggle drugs.

"Until June, we have arrested 26 suspects, including 21 Indonesian citizens," head of the airport`s customs and excise supervision and service office Oza Olavia said on Thursday.

The other five suspects were from Malaysia, Brazil, the Netherlands, Sierra Leonean and China, he said.

Not all the Indonesian suspects were drugs traffickers but some of them were drugs couriers, he said.

"Most of the suspected drugs traffickers were foreign nationals. The Indonesian citizens only acted as drugs couriers though several of them were also drugs traffickers," he said.

All the suspects were handed to the police, while the drugs were handed to the police and the National Narcotics Board, he said.

In the year to June 14, the customs and excise office also thwarted 19 drug-smuggling attempts, seizing 3,749 grams of crystal methamphetamine, 1,923.5 grams of cocaine, 56 grams of marijuana, 300 tablets of happy five, 41 ecstasy pills, and 1,040 grams of cocaine, worth Rp17.091 billion in total.

The figure fell from 24 cases in the same period last year, he said.(*)

Editor: Kunto Wibisono
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