IRT In Batam Arrested For Drug Smuggling To Balikpapan, Promised Wage Of IDR 30 Million

Batam Customs and Excise, Riau Islands, thwarted the smuggling of methamphetamine-type drugs brought by a housewife (IRT) from Karimun Regency, through Hang Nadim Batam Airport to Balikpapan, East Kalimantan.

Batam Customs Chief Zaky Firmansyah said the suspect with the initials MP (42) admitted that he had been paid the seventh time to smuggle drugs through the airport.

"The MP suspect has repeatedly made shipments of similar goods, since 2024," Zaky said as quoted by ANTARA, Wednesday, February 5.

The drug smuggling this time was successfully revealed by the Customs and Excise Team and Officers of the Hang Nadim Batam Airport who suspected that the contents of the suitcase were carried by the suspect.

The suspect's mode of storing drugs in a suitcase is almost the same as the previous disclosure on Thursday (23/1), namely hiding crystal methamphetamine in the form of crystalline powder packaged in small plastics as many as two packs weighing 505 grams (0.5 kg) in a pile of clothes with compositions, blankets, jeans and thick clothes.

The mode of hiding methamphetamine in suitcases piled up with thick clothes was also carried out by the AWI network from Karimun who was arrested on Thursday (23/1).

"The mode is similar to the previous action, which is hiding in jeans folding," Zaky said.

According to Zaky, MP's seventh attempt to smuggle drugs was thwarted thanks to the cooperation of all teams on duty at the airport, ranging from the intelligence team that observed passengers, to the involvement of the K-9 animal team that sniffed the passengers' belongings.

MP was arrested on Sunday (2/1) when he was about to fly using an airline on the Batam-Surabaya-Balikpapan route.

The perpetrators packaged methamphetamine in small sizes and inserted it between thick clothes such as jeans and blankets into MP's way of tricking the officers, until they escaped several times to send drugs to Jakarta, Lombok and Balikpapan.

In the delivery of the drug, MP was promised a salary of Rp. 30 million which will be transferred when the goods have been successfully sent.

Apart from MP, in the same week, namely January 27, 2025, Batam Customs and Excise also thwarted the smuggling of methamphetamine-type drugs through the Batam Center International Ferry Port, with the same mode, namely inserting between piles of clothing.

However, this time, the drug was brought by a freelancer at a nightclub in the Batam area with the initials MU (27), paid by a controller to carry drugs weighing 1,530 grams (1.5 kg) from Johor Malaysia to Batam.