Pilot Smuggled 55 Pounds of Ecstasy Into Indonesia, Officials Say

The airline did not respond to inquiries about the episode on Wednesday.

The arrest took place on July 28 when customs agents performing X-ray scans of luggage at Terminal 3 of Soekarno-Hatta International Airport “identified suspicious contents” in the pilot’s suitcase, the police said. The airport serves the greater Jakarta area on Java, Indonesia’s most populous island.

On Monday, the authorities released video footage in which the pilot, his face blurred, is seen pulling a roller bag to a luggage carousel, where he then retrieves a checked suitcase. He rolls the luggage through a customs checkpoint, where agents pull him aside for screening.

When the agents opened the larger suitcase, they discovered various drugs, including 14 “large packages containing ecstasy and one package of methamphetamine,” the Indonesian National Police said.

“The total evidence seized comprises 70,114 ecstasy pills with a net weight of 25,194.83 grams,” or about 55.5 pounds, Eko Hadi Santoso, director of narcotic crimes at the Criminal Investigation Agency, said in the statement.

At one point, the video shows agents questioning the pilot as they hold a plastic bottle filled with a liquid. In the video’s description on Instagram, the police said the bottle contained urine that they suspected he was carrying to deceive officers.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/05/world/asia/malaysian-airlines-pilot-drugs-arrest.html