BNN Chief Requests Wiretapping in Narcotics Cases to Begin from Investigation Stage: What is the Reason?

Jakarta – The Head of the National Narcotics Agency (BNN), Inspector General of Police Suyudi Ario Seto, has requested that the mechanism for wiretapping in narcotics enforcement be allowed from the investigation stage. He made this statement during a working meeting with Commission III of the House of Representatives (DPR RI) at the Parliamentary Complex in Senayan, Central Jakarta, on Tuesday, 7 April 2026. Suyudi explained that the new Criminal Procedure Code (KUHAP) limits wiretapping authority only to the prosecution stage. However, he believes that such authority is also crucial from the investigation phase and is an inseparable part of fulfilling the elements of criminal offences. “Wiretapping authority granted from the early stage could actually serve as initial material or screening to determine legal status and subsequent legal actions,” Suyudi stated. Through wiretapping at the investigation stage, according to him, the legal status of subjects can be confirmed—whether they are merely users or involved as part of narcotics distribution networks. Furthermore, he described the characteristics of narcotics crimes as being able to operate very silently. Therefore, wiretapping is needed as a special investigation technique, which is essentially covert or undercover intelligence activity. “The purpose is not to directly obtain pro justitia evidence, but purely to seek preliminary evidence and map criminal networks that are often invisible on the surface,” he said. According to him, this proposal is in line with the strategic views of the Indonesian National Police and has been supported by the new KUHAP, which provides room for the wiretapping mechanism to be regulated through separate rules or lex specialis, via the Narcotics and Psychotropics Bill. “In implementing the evidence provisions in Article 86 of Law Number 35 of 2009, this has also been concretised as the result of wiretapping, so the Narcotics Bill must still regulate wiretapping explicitly,” Suyudi concluded.