An officer prepares plastic packages of methamphetamine recovered from Asman before a press conference at the Customs office near Ngurah Rai Airport in Badung regency on Indonesia’s resort island of Bali. — AFP photos
BADUNG, Indonesia: A Tanzanian man was arrested in Bali after more than a kilogramme of methamphetamine was found inside his stomach, Indonesian authorities said yesterday.
Immigration officials on the holiday island — who routinely detain foreigners for drug offences — said they nabbed Abdul Rahman Asman at the international airport on January 30.
Asman (right) is escorted by customs officers before a press conference at the Customs office near Ngurah Rai Airport in Badung regency on Indonesia’s resort island of Bali.
An X-ray and CT scan turned up some 99 plastic baggies filled with white powder that Asman had swallowed, topping a kilo in weight, authorities said.
Dozens of the baggies were displayed on a table at the customs office Tuesday as Asman, 42, was paraded before reporters in an orange jumpsuit and restrained with hand and leg irons.
It was not clear if prosecutors will seek the death penalty against Asman but Indonesia has some of the world’s strictest drug laws, including execution by firing squad for traffickers.
There are dozens of smugglers on death row, including a cocaine-mule British grandmother, an American caught with crystal methamphetamine, and several west African inmates sentenced to death for drug crimes.
Bahri is escorted by customs officers before the press conference.
American Husein Ashadi Bahri, 60, was also shown at the conference after his arrest in a drug sting that discovered some 45 grams of marijuana stuffed inside a computer keyboard.
Bahri faces a maximum of 15 years in jail if convicted. — AFP