A Malaysian pilot who tested positive for meth, MDMA, and cocaine after flying a passenger plane to Indonesia risks the death penalty for allegedly smuggling more than 70,000 ecstasy tablets in his suitcase, officials said Friday.The 39-year-old pilot, identified only by his initials, MSO, was arrested Wednesday at Jakarta's Soekarno-Hatta international airport shortly after arriving from Kuala Lumpur.
The airport customs office did not say which carrier the pilot worked for, but the flight number indicated it was a Malaysia Airlines plane.
"The results of his urine test came back positive for meth, MDMA, and cocaine. So, at the time of the flight, he was under the influence," Hengky Tomuan Parlindungan Aritonang, an official at the airport customs office, told reporters in Jakarta.
"What concerns all of us is that this person's profession is a pilot, and at the time he arrived, he had just flown that plane from Kuala Lumpur to Indonesia," he said.
Customs officials found 14 bags of ecstasy -- more than 70,000 pills -- in the pilot's suitcase, and four grams of meth, thought to be for personal use, in his hand luggage.
