5 Malaysians held in Jakarta over drugs found in shoes

Five Malaysian nationals were apprehended by Indonesian authorities at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Jakarta on last Friday. The suspects, who had arrived from Kuala Lumpur via AirAsia, were detained after customs officers at the airport became suspicious of the travelers. Indonesian police found that each of the five individuals had concealed two packets of white powder in the insoles of their shoes, with each packet weighing around 500 grams.

Together, the five suspects were carrying approximately 5kg of the synthetic drug etomidate. The investigation revealed that the five Malaysians had been instructed through the Telegram messaging app to proceed to a hotel in central Jakarta, place their shoes in a red bag, and hand the bag to a Chinese national at the hotel lobby.

That individual was subsequently arrested. During the subsequent search of the hotel, police discovered keys to an apartment in north Jakarta that was allegedly being utilized as a laboratory for the production of vape pods containing etomidate. The raid yielded various tools and materials, including 16 five-litre cans of flavoring liquid, five one-liter bottles of liquid, 21,000 empty vape pods, 15,000 silicone pod caps, 800 plastic pipettes, and 4,715 pod containers in multiple flavors.

The estimated value of the seized items was 127.5 billion rupiah, which is equivalent to approximately RM33.8 million. In a separate incident last month, a Malaysian pilot was arrested at the same Jakarta airport for attempting to smuggle over 70,000 ecstasy pills weighing 25kg into Indonesia.