Indonesian police announced on Friday the arrest of a 39-year-old Malaysian pilot at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Jakarta. The pilot, identified only as MS, was apprehended shortly after flying a passenger plane from Kuala Lumpur, with over 70,000 ecstasy pills found in his luggage.

Customs officials discovered 14 bags of ecstasy tablets in the pilot's suitcase, along with four grams of methamphetamine in his hand luggage. The pilot allegedly transported the illicit substances at the request of an unidentified person, with a promised reward of 50,000 ringgit (approximately $12,240).

Authorities stated that the pilot was under the influence of drugs while flying the jet. A urine test came back positive for methamphetamine, MDMA, and cocaine. “What concerns all of us is that this person's profession is a pilot. At the time he arrived, he had just flown that plane from Kuala Lumpur to Indonesia,” an official said.

Malaysia Airlines has declined to comment while the investigation is ongoing but emphasized that it does not tolerate any form of misconduct and is conducting its own internal review. The airline pledged full cooperation with relevant authorities.

An officer with Indonesia's national drugs crime unit, Awaludin Amin, described the pilot as a courier for an international syndicate and noted that this was not the first time MS had smuggled drugs into Indonesia. Indonesia has some of the world's toughest anti-drug laws, with drug trafficking charges carrying life sentences or the death penalty, though a moratorium on executions has been in place for the past decade.

Around 90 foreign alleged traffickers and over 400 Indonesians remain on death row. Indonesia last carried out executions in 2016, and in 2015 two Australians were executed for attempting to smuggle heroin off Bali as part of the 'Bali Nine' drug ring.

Source: www.dw.com