Indonesian Customs officers standing guard over seven Iranians who were allegedly trying to smuggle hundreds of methamphetamine tablets into the country. (AFP Photo)
The recent spate of arrests of Iranians attempting to smuggle drugs into the country indicates that international drug rings still see Indonesia as a viable market, a criminology expert says.
According to Ronny Nitibaskara, a criminology professor from the University of Indonesia, easier access to international transportation and communication combined with inadequate surveillance have encouraged international drug rings to try to smuggle illegal drugs into Indonesia.
“These international syndicates see that we are lacking in surveillance,” he told the Jakarta Globe.
At least 23 Iranians have been arrested for smuggling drugs into the country using a variety of techniques since October, with 10 in the past week alone.
On Oct. 19 and 20, customs officials at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport arrested eight women and two men from Iran for allegedly attempting to smuggle more than Rp 100 billion ($10.6 million) worth of methamphetamine into the country. Calling it the biggest drug bust ever at the airport, officers discovered the drugs, some of them in liquid form, hidden inside food containers, soap and shampoo bottles packed in hand luggage.
On Oct. 28, Soekarno-Hatta customs found 5,358 grams of liquid methamphetamine worth Rp 11.7 billion hidden in 14 bottles of shampoo and hand sanitizer in the luggage of another Iranian who managed to escape arrest.
Three days later, customs officials intercepted a shipment of 5,130 grams of clear liquid suspected to be methamphetamine worth Rp 11.3 billion in six bottles sent from Iran.
And two days after that, an Iranian was arrested after an airport X-ray scanner revealed 1,000 grams of crystal methamphetamine worth Rp 2.2 billion hidden in four packages in his suitcases.
On Nov. 3, smugglers tried a different entry point — police apprehended two Iranians attempting to smuggle liquid methamphetamine into the country through Juanda International Airport in Surabaya.
The latest arrest last week was by Ngurah Rai customs officials in Bali, with seven Iranians arrested for attempting to smuggle drugs into the country by swallowing hundreds of methamphetamine-filled capsules worth about Rp 4 billion.
The Iranian embassy in Jakarta has refused to make any comment relating to this issue.
Authorities say the arrests show that international drug rings have learned that Africans and Asians, once the favored drug couriers, are being closely monitored. Of 66 foreigners on death row in Indonesian jails on drug charges, 36 are Asian and 18 are African.
“International drug syndicates have altered their strategy from using African and Asian nationals to Iranians,” Sumirat Dwiyanto, spokesman for the National Narcotics Agency (BNN) in Jakarta, told the Jakarta Globe.
“African nationals are still considered as strangers by Indonesians, after all, they are physically different. On the contrary, Iranians are considered closer because of their religious similarity. These international syndicates think we would be fooled by that.”
Some of the Iranians arrested included women wearing traditional Islamic veils.
“As usual, they also take advantage of women, because women are considered weaker, making them less suspicious,” Sumirat said.
Sumirat added that officials were carefully monitoring not only Iranians, but others from Middle-East countries as well.
“They can change their tactics all they like, but as long as the officers are aware and alert we will catch them,” Sumirat said.
The shift from African nationals to Iranians doesn’t surprise Nitibaskara.
“Those drugs couriers carefully weigh the risks and benefits. They come from poor countries, and are willing to gamble with their lives. I mean, they may or may not get caught in Indonesia,” he said.
Despite the arrests, many others could have slipped across Indonesia’s porous borders and coastline.
In a recent police operation in Batam, Sumirat said, officers identified 122 illegal ports of entry.
“If state institutions can close these illegal ports, that would help the effort to combat drug smuggling,” Nitibaskara said.
Although Indonesia has applied stringent measures on drug smuggling, an offense punishable by life imprisonment or death, it doesn’t seem to have deterred international drug syndicates.
“There is a high demand here, and we have a weak surveillance,” Nitibaskara said.
Ade Erwin, a national program officer with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime in Jakarta, said Indonesia’s strategic location and large population made it a valuable market for international syndicates.
The latest data from BNN shows that 3.6 million Indonesians are drug users.
According to the agency, Indonesia is one of the countries with the highest demand for illegal drugs, prompting more trafficking of drugs in and out of hundreds of “unguarded holes” throughout the sprawling island chain.
Thus, although state institutions in recent years have shown improvements in cracking down on clandestine drug factories and spoiling dozens of attempts to smuggle drugs into the country, the effort may be insufficient.
“This country is too big compared with the small number of officers able to monitor those holes,” Sumirat said. “We don’t have enough manpower because we only have 400 officers in BNN. Even if we hold hands with the police, we still cannot cover the vast coastline of this country.”
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