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Indian Man Busted at Bali Airport For Smuggling Club Drug Ketamine
Made Arya Kencana | February 14, 2010

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Customs officials at Ngurah Rai International Airport in Bali on Friday arrested an Indian man identified as Rangaswamy Mohammed Umar for allegedly trying to smuggle 9.8 kilograms of ketamine into the country.

Bambang Wahyudi, head of the airport’s customs office estimated that the ketamine, an anaesthetic used illicitly as a hallucinogen, was worth about Rp 9.8 billion ($1 million).

“It has a price of about Rp 1 million to 1.2 million per gram on the street,” he said.

Umar arrived in Bali on a Thai Airways flight from New Delhi via Bangkok, arriving in Denpasar on Friday afternoon. Customs officials’ suspicions were aroused when they spotted a suspicious-looking item when carrying out an X-ray examination of Umar’s luggage.

Officials said Umar told them the item was only a water heater that he planned to donate to a local orphanage, but on closer examination the officials found that it contained white crystal powder which was later identified as ketamine.

The drug was widely used as an anaesthetic by the US military during the war in Vietnam, but it is now popular with clubbers as it can induce dream-like states, vivid imagery and mild to severe hallucinations.

However, users may also experience flashbacks, confusion and memory problems. It can also cause cardiac arrest, brain damage and death. Ketamine is illegal in the United States, Australia, Hong Kong and India.

In Indonesia, the drug is categorized as a monitored substance and its distribution is restricted by the Health Ministry.

“Thus we can only charge the suspect under Article 196 of the 2009 Law on Health, which carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in jail and a fine of Rp 1 billion,” Bambang said.

Umar told customs officials that he had been paid 5,000 rupees ($108) to transport the drugs from India. He told officials that he didn’t know where the ketamine was to be distributed.