A North Sumatran woman was arrested at the domestic terminal of Bali’s Ngurah Rai Airport with a reported 506.47 grams of meth hidden in her headscarf.
The head of the Bali division of the National Narcotics Agency, Brig. Gen. Putu Gede Suastawa said the woman’s smuggling plan was thwarted upon her arrival to Bali on March 29, with a Lion Air flight from Batam.
“During screening in the arrivals terminal, officers suspected she was carrying a suspicious item, namely on her head. From there, they did a search,” Suastawa said in Denpasar on Monday, as quoted by Tribun Bali.
In a search, officers found a package of meth fastened to the woman’s head using cloth from a t-shirt, concealed under her headscarf.
The woman, NW, 42, told officers during questioning that she had already been part of a courier operation two other times before, but on previous occasions she had just been on standby waiting for the drugs at a hotel in Bali.
Based on urine testing, the mother of three is not an active drug user, according to Suastawa.
“The urine test was negative. She is smuggler, not a user.”
He added that the woman was motivated by the financial benefits of acting as a mule—she would get Rp 5 million for couriering the drugs, as well as a bonus of around Rp 3 million.
BNN is deepening its investigation into NW’s operation, but says the identity of the buyer NW was meant to deliver to remains a mystery, since the woman didn’t know the buyer herself.
“Once arrested, the network was immediately cut off. The perpetrator also did knot know the identity of the buyer,” Suastawa explained.
