Drug-dealing spots identified

Drug-dealing spots identified

Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Jakarta Narcotics Agency (BNP) declared on Tuesday several
areas in the city as trouble spots where drug trafficking was
rampant.

"These trouble spots need special handling in order to reduce
drug trafficking there," BNP chairman Fauzi Bowo said at City
Hall.

He named Duripulo subdistrict near Roxy electronics center in
West Jakarta and Kampung Ambon subdistrict in Cengkareng district
in West Jakarta as two of the areas where drug dealing was
rampant.

Fauzi, who is also Jakarta deputy governor, said that his
agency along with police's drug squad had identified one of the
roots of drug trafficking problems in those areas as the high
unemployment rate.

"Because most residents in those trouble spots are jobless,
they are easy prey for drug rings who have unlimited funds to
recruit them as drug pushers and dealers," he said.

"In the past, we know that Kampung Bali in Tanah Abang
district in Central Jakarta was a troubled area, but since
various parties have given a helping hand, the drug problem in
the area has been reduced significantly, though, we still need to
monitor the area," he said.

Fauzi also named Warakas in North Jakarta, Galur in Senen,
Central Jakarta, and Kebon Kacang in Central Jakarta as troubled
areas.

The involvement of residents in the drug network has made the
crackdown on drug trafficking at those locations more complicated
as residents tried to hide the business from law enforcers, he
said.

"We need more comprehensive efforts involving various parties
in those communities to solve the problem, including measures to
provide jobs for the residents," he said.

The administration has so far selected 10 of 44 districts in
the capital to receive more funds for antidrug programs in their
communities.

The programs are chaired by district heads with police
precinct chiefs as deputies.

He emphasized that efforts to combat drug trafficking had to
involve the public, or they would fail.

There are an estimated 10,000 injecting drug users (IDUs) in
the capital. Those drug users face a higher risk of contracting
HIV by sharing used needles.

An official report showed that as of Dec. 31, 2004, the city
had the highest recorded number of people living with HIV/AIDS at
2,505, or 45 percent of the 5,540 officially reported cases of
HIV/AIDS nationwide.