ASEAN ups cooperation to fight drug trafficking

Wahyoe Boediwardhana, The Jakarta Post, Nusa Dua, Bali

The failure to track chemists and the precursor chemicals for certain types of illegal drugs remain a major obstacle in the fight against drug trafficking, a conference held here concluded on Wednesday.

Sr. Comr. Indradi Tharos, a senior officer at the Indonesian police headquarters who chaired the conference commission debating terrorism, human and drug trafficking, and arms smuggling, said chemists were indispensable to the production of illegal drugs.

"The process of making drugs involves the presence of a chemist, so it is important to have a list of chemists who travel frequently across (Southeast Asian) countries that can be shared among us," he said at the 25th ASEAN Chiefs of Police Conference (ASEANAPOL).

The commission also discussed plans to beef up the monitoring of imports of precursor chemicals necessary for the production of ecstasy and methamphetamine (shabu-shabu) from countries such as China that produce these chemicals.

"This monitoring will be a huge challenge in the future because there are enormous markets for these two types of drugs, whether in America, Europe, Australia and even Indonesia," said Indradi.

The challenge, he said, was even more difficult for Indonesia because the country had yet to pass a law criminalizing the unlicensed possession of these precursor chemicals.

The absence of such a law has often led to the imposition of administrative sanctions only, not jail sentences, for companies found to have misused their import licenses.

Another issue discussed at the conference was the possibility of inventorying the assets of suspected drug traffickers to help the authorities charge the suspects under money laundering laws.

The conference, which will run through Friday, also highlighted efforts to tighten the monitoring of ports to cut down on the amount of illegal drugs entering the member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

"We have several ports that are loosely monitored, such as Benoa Port in Bali which serves about 700 boats per month. The problem is how to tighten the monitoring of these boats," Indradi said.

He said a survey was underway of Indonesia's ports to identify those that needed to tighten their security and monitoring procedures.

According to the National Narcotics Agency, most of the ports that are prone to the entrance of illegal drugs are located in Sumatra, Batam, Riau and Bali.

Indradi also said Indonesia could use this conference to secure assistance in tracking down suspects who fled Indonesia to other ASEAN countries.