Drug suspect jumps to death from 24th floor
Evi Mariani, Jakarta
A suspected heroin dealer, identified as Emmanuel, 29, died instantly after falling from the 24th story of Taman Rasuna Apartments in South Jakarta on Tuesday.
Jakarta Police narcotics division chief Sr. Comr. Carlo Tewu told reporters on Tuesday that the suspect jumped from his apartment's kitchen window at around 4 p.m., in an attempt to elude police who tried to arrest him.
He fell to the ground between Tower 10 and Tower 11 of the apartment complex.
Police could not find any identification on the suspect, but confirmed that he was not Indonesian, looking at his physical appearance, height and skin color. Police got his name from the apartment management.
"When he rented the apartment two months ago, he told the apartment owner that his name was Emmanuel," Carlo said at the crime scene, adding that the owner notified the management of the deal.
"We traced him here after we got a lead from a convicted drug dealer at Tangerang Boys Correctional Facility."
A joint team comprising of narcotics detectives from Tangerang Police and Jakarta Police went to apartment 24G in Tower 11 at Taman Rasuna to arrest Emmanuel. Police sources said the suspect had four kilograms of heroin in his apartment.
When the police got to his apartment, they found Emmanuel and his Indonesian wife, Maria.
The suspect was alarmed to see the officers and quickly grabbed the heroin packed in plastic bags. He ran toward the kitchen window and emptied its contents out the window.
According to police, they tried to stop him by firing warning shots into the air but Emmanuel had already jumped out the window. Police later detained Maria and confiscated the remaining 0.5-kilograms of heroin in his apartment.
Tangerang Police narcotics division chief Comr. Aji Parno was upset over Emmanuel's death.
"To arrest all the network members, information from this suspect was really important. Since he has died, we have to start our investigation all over again," he said at the crime scene.
Other tenants said that Emmanuel never socialized with his neighbors.
"Usually, if a person wants to rent an apartment here through the building management, he or she has to first meet with neighbors and ask their consent to rent here," Nancy, one of the tenants said, adding that tenants did not want drug dealers living in the apartment block.
"Apparently, this man rented the room directly from the owner, so we could not interfere," she added.
Police said that Emmanuel's case was not related to an earlier arrest of a Brazilian carrying six kilograms of cocaine.
"No. It has nothing to do with the cocaine dealer," Carlo said.
On Saturday, Customs and Excise officials at the Soekarno- Hatta International Airport managed to foil a smuggling attempt of six kilograms of cocaine.
The suspect, Brazilian Rodrigo Gularte, 32, hid the cocaine in his surfboard.
He is now being detained and questioned by airport police.