Drug dealer shot dead by police

JAKARTA: Police shot dead a drug distributor on Jl. Hayam Wuruk in Central Jakarta on Sunday evening after the suspect tried to escape police arrest.

"The suspect, Syarif Muhammad Jamal, 25, had long been a police target in a drug trafficking case," city police detectives chief of narcotics Adj. Sr. Comr. Carlo B. Tewu told The Jakarta Post.

Police confiscated 2,000 ecstasy pills and 20 grams of shabu- shabu (crystal methamphetamine) from the suspect.

Carlo said Jamal had eight dealers who helped him to distribute the drugs. One of them, Sutejo, was seized in October last year. --JP