Drug dealer continues running business from cell at Cipinang

Abdul Khalik, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

City police have revealed that a drug convict has managed to continue running his drug dealing operation from behind bars, thanks to the leniency accorded by prison officials.

Head of city police's drugs division Sr. Comr. Carlo Brix Tewu said that the convict, identified as Jimmy, who is now imprisoned at the Cipinang maximum security prison, was still taking orders from customers and instructing syndicate members via cellular phone.

"We are still gathering more evidence and hunting down several syndicate members who are still active in dealing drugs outside the prison. If we can capture them, we may be able to uncover several prison-based syndicates," Carlo told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.

Jimmy's true identity, including when he was sentenced and for how long, was not made public due to fears that it might prompt syndicate members to go underground.

How a drug convict manages to be in possession of a cellular phone -- something that is prohibited in all prisons throughout the country -- remains unclear.

Carlo said police had linked several drug syndicates to several prisons after they obtained information from suspected drugs dealers arrested recently.

Emeka Coku, 31, a member of a Nigerian drugs syndicate, and his female companion identified as Puspi Susanti, 26, were arrested last Sunday after trying to sell heroin to undercover police officers in front of the Sarinah building in Central Jakarta.

Coku was a member of a drug syndicate controlled by a big-time convicted dealer identified as Jimmy, also a Nigerian, from a cell inside the Cipinang penitentiary in East Jakarta.

A more prominent syndicate member identified as Christopher, believed to be the second-in-charge of the syndicate, managed to evade capture by the police.

"Christopher is our link to Jimmy. If we can capture him, we can wipe out the Nigerian syndicate in the capital," said chief of the dangerous drugs unit at the city police Adj. Comr. Sugeng AR said.

He said that Jimmy controlled his operations with a cellular phone from his cell.

"People who want to supply or buy drugs contact Jimmy through his cellular phone. Then, Jimmy tells Christopher to deliver the orders. Christopher is assisted by Coku and several local drug dealers," Sugeng said.

Observers have long suggested that prison officials were involved in drug trafficking as it was impossible that outsiders could smuggle drugs in and out the prison if they were searched thoroughly.

The fact that Jimmy could have a cellular phone inside a prison, for instance, showed that something was seriously wrong as according to regulations inmates are forbidden to possess communications devices inside the prison.

Last month, convicted actor Ibrahim Solahuddin, 32, better known as Ibra Azahari, was caught with several grams of shabu shabu (crystal amphetamine) inside his cell, also in Cipinang Prison.

The biggest prison trafficking case was revealed in June, 2003, when police discovered that two Africans, Nwaolisa Hansen Anthony and George Obinya, controlled an international drug network worth around Rp 800 million per month from inside the Cipinang Prison.

Although drug trafficking inside the prison continues to occur, no serious integrated measures have been taken by the government so far.

"Prisons are the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights. We have limited authority inside the prison. All we can do is regular checks," city police spokesman Sr. Comr. Tjiptono said.

He said that police harbored suspicions that several other drugs syndicates were controlled from other penitentiaries.