5 Malaysians held in Jakarta over drugs found in shoes

Five Malaysian nationals were apprehended by Indonesian police at Jakarta's Soekarno-Hatta International Airport after disembarking from an AirAsia flight from Kuala Lumpur on a Friday. The suspects were alleged to be involved in smuggling 5 kilograms of etomidate, a synthetic drug, concealed within their shoes. This discovery came after customs and excise officers became suspicious of their behavior, leading to a thorough search that uncovered two packets of white powder in each person's shoe, with each packet weighing approximately 500 grams. Collectively, the seized substances amounted to 10 packets, totaling around 5 kilograms.

Further investigations unveiled a coordinated operation where the suspects were directed by a person via the Telegram messaging app. Upon reaching Jakarta, they were instructed to present their shoes in a red bag to a Chinese individual at the hotel lobby. This Chinese individual was subsequently arrested. The police then discovered an apartment in north Jakarta, believed to be utilized as a laboratory for manufacturing vape pods containing etomidate, a short-acting intravenous anaesthetic.

During the operation, police seized various materials and equipment associated with the production of vape pods, including 16 five-liter cans of flavoring liquid, five one-liter bottles of liquid, 21,000 empty vape pods, and 15,000 silicone pod caps. Additionally, they recovered 800 plastic pipettes and 4,715 pod containers in numerous flavors. The estimated value of these seized items was approximately 127.5 billion rupiah, or around 33.8 million Malaysian Ringgit.

In a related incident earlier in the year, a Malaysian pilot was apprehended at the same airport for allegedly attempting to smuggle over 70,000 ecstasy pills, weighing 25 kilograms, into Indonesia.