Singaporean pilot detained as Laos finds 521 kg of meth on private jet bound for Manila

Laotian police seized 521 kg of crystal methamphetamine as it was being loaded onto a private jet at Luang Prabang International Airport earlier this month, a shipment Malaysian police say was bound for Manila.

Thirteen people have been detained, including the aircraft's Singaporean pilot, Malaysian co-pilot and Filipino passenger, Hussein Omar Khan, director of the Royal Malaysia Police's Narcotics Crime Investigation Department, said in a statement on Oct. 6 carried by Bernama.

The other 10 are Laotians, three airport ground-handling staff and seven workers who operate X-ray scanners, he said.

"The drugs seized were meant for the Manila market in the Philippines and not the Malaysian market," Hussein said, according to The Star.

The jet left Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport in Subang, outside Kuala Lumpur, with no cargo on board and landed in Luang Prabang, a tourist town in northern Laos, at about 11:30 a.m. on Oct. 1, he said.

Two vehicles reached the airport at about 1:30 p.m., and airport workers helped move 23 bags from them onto carts to be loaded onto the aircraft, according to the statement.

Police found 500 packs of crystal meth in 21 of the 23 suitcases, Bernama reported.

Provincial police had received a tip on Sept. 21 that a trafficking ring planned to smuggle drugs by private aircraft.

Officers seized the Learjet, which carries the registration N73GP, and a pickup truck. U.S. Federal Aviation Administration records list a Utah-based trustee company as the registered owner of the jet, a 1986 Learjet 55B.

Laotian authorities informed Malaysian police of the seizure on Oct. 6, and Malaysia will send narcotics officers to Laos to question the suspects and look into the syndicate's links to Malaysia, Hussein said.

Malaysia's Border Control and Protection Agency has opened an internal investigation, its director-general, Mohd Shuhaily Mohd Zain, said, according to the New Straits Times.