Authorities in Indonesia have released video footage of the arrest of a pilot from Malaysia who they said smuggled about 55 pounds of ecstasy and a package of methamphetamine after landing at the main international airport serving Jakarta last week.
The pilot, who was identified only by the initials M.S.B.O., also tested positive for ecstasy and cocaine when he was arrested on July 28, the Indonesian National Police said in a statement on Friday.
The statement did not name the pilot’s employer, but in a statement that was cited in Malaysian news reports, Malaysia Airlines said it was cooperating with the investigation, according to The Associated Press.
“Malaysia Airlines wishes to reiterate that it does not tolerate any form of misconduct and is currently undertaking an internal review of the matter,” the airline said in the cited statement.
The airline did not respond to inquiries about the episode on Wednesday.
The arrest took place on July 28 when customs agents performing X-ray scans of luggage at Terminal 3 of Soekarno-Hatta International Airport “identified suspicious contents” in the pilot’s suitcase, the police said. The airport serves the greater Jakarta area on Java, Indonesia’s most populous island.
On Monday, the authorities released video footage in which the pilot, his face blurred, is seen pulling a roller bag to a luggage carousel, where he then retrieves a checked suitcase. He rolls the luggage through a customs checkpoint, where agents pull him aside for screening.
When the agents opened the larger suitcase, they discovered various drugs, including 14 “large packages containing ecstasy and one package of methamphetamine,” the Indonesian National Police said.
“The total evidence seized comprises 70,114 ecstasy pills with a net weight of 25,194.83 grams,” or about 55.5 pounds, Eko Hadi Santoso, director of narcotic crimes at the Criminal Investigation Agency, said in the statement.
At one point, the video shows agents questioning the pilot as they hold a plastic bottle filled with a liquid. In the video’s description on Instagram, the police said the bottle contained urine that they suspected he was carrying to deceive officers.
The pilot told investigators that he had been promised 50,000 Malaysian Ringgit, or about $12,200, to transport the drugs to Jakarta, the police said. He also said that, after he checked into a local hotel, he had been told he would receive further instructions from a person from Malaysia who would later collect the drugs, according to the police.
Investigators said that the pilot admitted transporting drugs on two other trips, including one in which he delivered methamphetamine to Sabah, a Malaysian state on the island of Borneo, and 15 pounds of methamphetamine to Jakarta.
It was not clear if the pilot had a lawyer. The police said he was being investigated under Indonesia’s narcotics law, which carries serious penalties — including the possibility of the death penalty — for people convicted of trafficking large quantities of illegal drugs.
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