Denpasar. Customs officers in Bali have arrested a Lithuanian man for allegedly attempting to smuggle almost four kilograms of methamphetamine into the island, in what an official called the biggest single drug bust of the year.
The suspect, identified only by the initials V.L., 41, was arrested in the early hours of Monday after arriving at Denpasar’s Ngurah Rai International Airport on board a flight from Hong Kong.
As he was passing through customs with his wife, an X-ray scan revealed a foil-wrapped package inside his backpack, according to Budi Harjanto, the regional customs office head for Bali and Nusa Tenggara.
Officers opened the package and discovered some 944 grams of a crystalline substance that later tested positive as meth. Two other packages were found in V.L.’s other bags, containing 1,982 grams and 986 grams of the same drug, Budi said.
“In all, there was 3,912 grams of meth,” he said. “This was our biggest seizure so far in 2014.”
Police have taken V.L. and his wife into custody, and are deepening the investigation to uncover the latter’s role in the smuggling attempt, according to Sr. Comr. Gusti Ketut Budiarta, the Bali Police’s anti-narcotics chief.
Budiarta said police had charged V.L. under the 2009 Anti-Narcotics Law, for which he could face the death penalty if convicted. No charges have yet been pressed against the wife.
Budiarta added that investigators were having some difficulty questioning the suspect because he did not speak English.
“But what’s clear is that this smuggling attempt is the work of an international syndicate,” he said.
