Tanzanian man smuggling more than a kilogram of meth inside his stomach arrested at Bali airport

A Tanzanian citizen traveling from Doha to Bali was arrested by Ngurah Rai customs officers and Bali Police after an X-ray scan revealed that he was carrying 1.1 kilograms of methamphetamine inside his stomach.

Speaking at a press conference today, Untung Basuki, the head of the Directorate General of Customs and Excise of East and West Nusa Tenggara, confirmed the capture of the alleged drug smuggler, identified as 42-year-old Abdul Rachman Azman.

“The suspect was arrested at the International Arrival Terminal of I Gusti Ngurah Rai Airport on January 30, 2019 at 6pm, after officers inspected the suspect’s body via X-ray,” he said, as quoted by Antara Bali.

Azman had reportedly packed 99 capsules of meth inside a condom and swallowed the lot in efforts to avoid detection, according to a report in detiknews.

But despite his extreme method, Azman was found out after X-ray and CT scans carried out at the airport, and then later a local hospital, showed suspicious foreign objects wedged inside his digestive tract.

Once evacuated, the drugs packages were estimated to have a market value of IDR1.7 billion (about US$121,060).

“The total evidence is believed to have an enormous circulation value of around IDR1.7 billion, and could be consumed by 5,655 people assuming one gram is consumed by five people,” commented Basuki, as quoted by Antara Bali.

Meanwhile, the suspect claimed to have been offered a US$2,000 reward should he manage to bring the prohibited goods to Bali. Police are still investigating his connections to a larger drug network, according to local reports.

Under Indonesia’s notoriously strict drug laws, Azman faces a maximum sentence of capital punishment and a maximum fine of IDR 10 billion (US$711,938).