Indonesian authorities have arrested a 39-year-old Malaysian pilot who flew a Malaysia Airlines passenger jet into Jakarta while under the influence of drugs and carrying more than 70,000 ecstasy pills hidden in his luggage.
Customs officers at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport discovered 14 large packages of ecstasy weighing roughly 25 kilograms, along with methamphetamine, in the suspect's suitcase after he arrived from Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday. A urine test returned positive for methamphetamine, MDMA, and cocaine. Police said the pilot, identified by the initials MSBO, was paid 50,000 Malaysian ringgit (about US$12,200) to smuggle the drugs and had completed two prior trafficking runs to Malaysia and Indonesia.
He has been charged under Indonesia's narcotics law and could face the death penalty or life imprisonment if convicted.