Alleged Nigerian drug dealer shot dead

JAKARTA (JP): City police detectives shot dead an alleged Nigerian heroin dealer after he resisted arrest and attempted to snatch a policeman's gun in a hotel on Jl. Pramuka in Central Jakarta on Monday.

The city police detective chief Col. Gories Mere told reporters that the victim identified as March Adam Combelig was shot three times in the leg and later died at the scene.

Gories, however, declined to give the cause of death, as the three shoots to the leg, were unlikely to have caused the death.

"He was shot dead in room 927, while he was with his Indonesian girlfriend," he said.

Gories explained that police found 750 grams of heroin with an estimated street value of about Rp 350 million (US$31,818) in a black leather bag.

"He tried to remove the evidence by swallowing the heroin, part of which was hidden around his waist and blew some of the substance in the officers' faces to cloud their vision", Gories said.

He said that Combelig was on the police's most wanted list as he was frequently arrested in police operations but was released when there wasn't enough evidence.

"He has been caught at least three times in our routine operations," he said, without giving details of the arrests.

Combelig reportedly checked into the hotel last week and on early Monday, Debby, a resident of Jl. Utan Panjang in East Jakarta, came to accompany him. The two met in the Tanamur Discotheque two weeks earlier.

Debby said that she was unaware that her 'partner' was a heroin dealer as she never saw Combelig consume any heroin or drugs.

Debby said she was standing at the corner of the room, when police suddenly rushed into the room to search Adam but he resisted.

"They were later involved in a fight, with Combelig trying to snatch a policeman's gun. Then I heard the shots," Debby said.

She admitted that she was shocked because she witnessed the shooting and was bombarded with questions from the police afterwards.

Police, however, let Debby go and said that she would be summoned if police needed any further information.

Combelig's body was rushed to the Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital morgue in Central Jakarta for a post-mortem examination. (emf)