INDONESIA: CUSTOMS AND EXCISE OFFICERS AT JAKARTA AIRPORT ARREST 3 BRAZILIANS SUSPECTED OF SMUGGLING 6 KILOGRAMS OF COCAINE HIDDEN IN THEIR SURFBOARDS

Record ID: 230506

  • Title: INDONESIA: CUSTOMS AND EXCISE OFFICERS AT JAKARTA AIRPORT ARREST 3 BRAZILIANS SUSPECTED OF SMUGGLING 6 KILOGRAMS OF COCAINE HIDDEN IN THEIR SURFBOARDS
  • Date: 5th August 2004
  • Summary: (W4) JAKARTA, INDONESIA (AUGUST 5, 2004) (REUTERS) 1. JAKARTA AIRPORT CUSTOM AND EXCISE OFFICE EXTERIORS 0.04 2. CU: INDONESIA CUSTOM EXCISE LOGO 0.08 3. RODRIGO GULARTE, ONE OF THE SUSPECTED DRUG SMUGGLERS LED INTO ROOM 0.15 4. CONFISCATED SURF BOARDS 0.21 5. SURF BOARDS CUT OPEN SHOWING WHERE COCAINE WAS HIDDEN 0.31 6. CU: CUSTOMS OFFICER 0.36 7. CU/PAN OF SURF BOARDS (2 SHOTS) 0.49 8. CONFISCATED COCAINE BAGS; CUSTOMS OFFICIALS (2 SHOTS) 0.56 9. COCAINE BAGS 1.01 10. NEWS CONFERENCE 1.05 11. (SOUNDBITE) (Bahasa Indonesia) DIRECTOR GENERAL OF CUSTOMS AND EXCISE, EDY ABDURAHMAN SAYING: "The officers were suspicious over the bags and boards. They re-examined the belongings and x-rayed them again, opening the board bags and cut open the surfboards. Inside they found 12 bags weighing half-a-kilogram each inside the surf boards" 1.42 12. MEDIA AT NEWS CONFERENCE 1.47 13. (SOUNDBITE) (Bahasa Indonesia) DIRECTOR GENERAL OF CUSTOM AND EXCISE EDY ABDURAHMAN SAYING: "The Airport Customs and Excise arrested the three Brazilians over attempting to smuggle six kilograms of the Class A drug cocaine into the country" 2.12 14. VARIOUS PHOTOGRAPHS OF SUSPECTS AND OFFICIALS DURING INVESTIGATION (3 SHOTS) 2.28 15. GULARTE BEING LEAD OUT 2.41 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 20th August 2004 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: JAKARTA, INDONESIA
  • Country: Indonesia
  • Reuters ID: LVA6M9JNJYD0IGUNMAL9YOQ9RTRT
  • Story Text: Indonesian police arrest three Brazilians suspected
    of smuggling six kilograms of cocaine hidden in their
    surfboards.


    Customs and Excise officers at Jakarta's
    Soekarno-Hatta International Airport arrested three
    Brazilians, Rodrigo Gularte, Fred Silve Magueta and Emerson
    Viera Guemares on Saturday (July 31) for drug smuggling, a
    news conference heard on Thursday (August 5).

    The three arrived in Jakarta from Sao Paolo on a Cathay
    Pacific Flight and were on their way to Bali.

    Officials said they appeared nervous when their bags
    and eight surfboards passed through the X-ray machine.

    They became suspicious after the X-ray machine
    examination and decided to cut open the boards and found 12
    plastic bags of white powder weighing around six kilograms.

    "The officers were suspicious over the bags and boards.

    They re-examined the belongings and x-rayed them again,
    opening the board bags and cut open the surfboards. Inside
    they found 12 bags weighing half-a-kilogram each inside the
    surf boards," said Edy Abdurahman, Head of Indonesia's
    Customs and Excise.

    The officers initially thought the bags contained
    heroin, but it was later confirmed to be cocaine.

    "The Airport Customs and Excise arrested the three
    Brazilians for attempting to smuggle six kilograms of the
    Class A drug cocaine into the country," said Abdurahman.

    Gularte, who attended the news conference and two other
    friends will be charged under Law No. 22/1997 on narcotics,
    which carries a maximum death penalty.

    Earlier on Thursday (August 5), Indonesia executed an
    Indian national sentenced to death in 1995 for drug
    smuggling, ending a three year gap in carrying out death
    penalties.

    The execution came despite an appeal from the European
    Union and sparked criticism from human rights groups.

    Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri has vowed to get tough
    i
    n the war on drugs, and the country's courts
    have passed a handful of death sentences on convicted drug
    felons, most of them foreigners.

    About a dozen foreign drug offenders are on death row,
    many of them Africans. All of the four Indonesians awaiting
    execution are female couriers working for foreign
    syndicates.

    Death penalty advocates have complained that the
    rulings were merely rhetoric as the country has not carried
    out the death penalty on a drug smuggler for a decade.

    Human rights campaigners have pushed for an end to the
    death penalty, which they say has proven ineffective in
    deterring the country's thriving illegal drug business.




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