DEA, BNN forge cooperation to stamp out drug groups
Evi Mariani, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta
The National Narcotics Agency (BNN) and the United States' Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) are collaborating to curb the business of drug syndicates.
The initial phase of the cooperation was a 10-day training course for narcotics detectives, organized by BNN and DEA, from Aug. 2 to Aug. 11 in Jakarta. The participants were not only Jakarta Police detectives but also those from other big cities in the country.
"(Besides that), we will form an intelligence center to collect advanced information on international drug networks," Jakarta Police chief Insp. Gen. Firman Gani said on Friday on the sidelines of the official destruction of drugs worth Rp 13.52 billion (US$1.47 million) at the headquarters.
He pointed out that it was too time consuming and taxing to concentrate only on raiding suspected spots where drug deals frequently take place.
"There will be more significant results if we can trace the source of the drugs and arrest the big fish," he said.
Firman said that the police had worked maximally to stamp out drugs, but they needed to improve their working system to be able to trace the syndicates that continuously change the way they operate.
City police chief of narcotics detectives Sr. Comr. Carlo Brix Tewu explained that the DEA officers would provide more training in the future to improve Indonesian detectives' skills in dealing with drug syndicates.
The DEA will also give hardware and software to improve the police force's working system.
Some of the DEA instructors, who were scheduled to fly back to the United States on Friday afternoon, also witnessed the destruction of the drugs at the headquarters.
A total of 5.4 kilograms of cocaine, 68.5 grams of heroin, 13.33 kilograms of shabu-shabu (crystal methamphetamine) were dissolved in saltwater, while 168.3 kilograms of marijuana and 31,882 ecstasy pills were burned.
"By confiscating and destroying the drugs, we managed to prevent an estimated 734,298 drug abusers from using the drugs," Carlo said. "The estimation is based on the average consumption of drugs by abusers, such as a gram of shabu-shabu can be used by 10 people."
The drugs were seized from 17 suspects working for 10 different syndicates, including Rodrigo Gularte, a Brazilian national who was arrested attempting to smuggle six kilograms of cocaine into the country inside surfboards.
Gularte and other suspects also witness the destruction of the drugs.
The police put aside 600 grams of the cocaine to be used as evidence in court.