Drugs: An all-out war against drug traffickers
Drugs: An all-out war against drug traffickers
JAKARTA (JP): Tons of marijuana, kilograms of heroin and tens
of thousands of ecstasy and sedative pills were seized by Jakarta
Police detectives this year as the city faced up to a burgeoning
drug problem.
Along with the hauls, believed to be the biggest of recent
years, some 900 people, including 62 women, were arrested.
It remains to be seen if the drug suspects will ultimately be
brought to court and tried. Antidrug activists complain that lax
enforcement of the law has contributed to the proliferation of
drug activities.
As in the past, foreigners -- particularly Thai and Nepalese
nationals -- were among those apprehended attempting to smuggle
drugs, especially heroin, into Jakarta through Soekarno-Hatta
International Airport.
In an attempt to fool police and airport officials, some
foreign drug smugglers adopted the practice of using Indonesian
women as couriers.
After obtaining passports for the women, the foreigners paid
for them to visit different countries on "sightseeing" trips. The
women were instructed to pick up packages to bring with them on
their return home.
Most of the women eventually arrested here or at foreign
airports on their return journey claimed to know nothing about
the drugs found concealed in their handbags, shoes and packages
they were carrying.
As evidence of the spread of drugs in the city, the people
arrested as drug dealers, traffickers and users were from
different walks of life; they included a councilor, police
officers, military personnel, a lieutenant in the Army's Special
Force (Kopassus), a mother and her daughter, a former coffin
maker and a reporter.
The lone drug arrest in the first month of the year was no
indication of the pattern of drug arrests during the rest of the
year and the declaration of war against the problem by the city
administration.
In early February, the city was witnessed to the paranoid and
delusional behavior of a 40-year-old sailor high on drugs.
Agus Salim climbed a 12-meter-high lamppost on the busy Senen
flyover in Central Jakarta on the night of Feb. 2, remaining
there for at least 10 hours as police and members of the public
tried to coax him down.
"I felt like I was being followed by a group of men on my way
here by train from Bogor. One of my pursuers attempted to kill
me," Agus said. He admitted to having spend most of his wages on
drugs.
On Feb. 17, customs and excise officials at Soekarno-Hatta
caught a Thai woman, Suphaporn Phanluang, 32, with 4.25 kilograms
of heroin concealed in her luggage. She arrived on a flight from
Bangkok.
On May 4, police seized thousands of fake prescription pills
and tablets worth some Rp 100 million (US$13,900) from a
warehouse and two kiosks in East Jakarta.
The pills were in identical packaging to the authentic drugs,
which are only available on prescription. The drugs included the
antirheumatic skelan, incidal, cloramphenical, dextamethasone,
gestanon, diamicron, dextamine and at least 25 bottles of
unmarked pills.
Councilor
On June 8, the deputy speaker of South Sumatra's Musi Rawas
Regency Legislative Council, Deddy Rohaka, was arrested in a
hotel room in West Jakarta for being under the influence of
shabu-shabu (crystal metamphetamine).
The councilor and an aide to the provincial governor, Enang
Ali, were caught along with two women.
About two weeks later, police captured a 35-year-old former
coffin maker, Khwan Tjiang, alias Atjiang, alias Benny Sembiring,
with 38,172 ecstasy pills in his possession. Dubbed the city
police's biggest ever haul of ecstasy pills, the drugs were
estimated to have a street value of over Rp 1.7 billion.
The previous largest haul was made three years ago when 29,677
ecstasy pills were found in the home of Zarina Mirafsur, also
known as Zarima, a onetime actress who was baptized by the media
the country's "queen of ecstasy". She made headlines again at the
end of the year.
The period of late July through the entire month of August
proved to be a challenging period for police and airport
personnel.
It began with the July 29 arrest of two Nepalese with 73
heroin-filled capsules inside their stomachs.
Bala Tamang and Marbahadur Tamang were handcuffed shortly
after they disembarked from a Thai Airways flight from Bangkok.
Doctors at the police-run Soekanto Hospital determined the men
were carrying 365 grams of heroin, with a street price of some Rp
146 million.
The following day, customs officials at the airport caught two
other Nepalese nationals with 1.76 kilograms of heroin in their
stomachs. Til Bahadur Bhandari and Bahadur Gurung, who arrived on
a Singapore Airlines flight, attempted to bribe the officials
with US$4,000.
On Aug. 4, police seized more than 63,000 sedative pills from
three people, one of them a mother of six children, in a raid in
Central Jakarta. The drugs -- 3,100 nipam pills, 1,250 rohypnol
pills, 22,500 BK pills, 8,000 magadon pills, 19,350 lexotan pills
and 9,000 rivotril pills -- were worth about Rp 10 million.
West Jakarta Police detectives found themselves in an
embarrassing bind after arresting two men at a hotel on Aug. 8.
One of the men was later identified a member of Kopassus,
Second Lt. Agus Isrok, 22, the eldest son of Gen. Subagyo
Hadisiswoyo, then Army chief of staff.
Police collected five kilograms of shabu-shabu, 6,177 ecstasy
pills, 13 grams of heroin, Rp 2,980,000 in cash and a check for
Rp 3 million, an FN pistol and several marijuana cigarettes from
the two suspects.
The Jakarta Military Police assumed the handling of the case
Aug. 12 but there has since been a virtual news blackout on its
status. Subagyo left his post a few months later.
Impromptu
Three days after the arrest of Agus, Jakarta Police chief Maj.
Gen. Noegroho Djajoesman announced the arrest of seven of his
low-ranking officers for allegedly using shabu-shabu at the
Petamburan Police Dormitory on Jl. K.S. Tubun in West Jakarta.
Noegroho said he himself led the impromptu midnight raid.
In mid-August, an Indonesian woman was arrested in Karachi,
Pakistan, with 3.3 kilograms of heroin in her possession. She was
identified as Ruth Elizabeth, in her 30s and a resident of Bekasi
Selatan.
On the following day, Soekarno-Hatta airport officials caught
a 28-year-old Thai woman attempting to smuggle 1.75 kilograms of
pure heroin into the country.
Khanchana Thiangtum was apprehended shortly after customs
officers discovered the drugs, valued at about Rp 700 million,
hidden in the sides of her travel bag.
On Aug. 23, police confiscated over 5.5 million sedative pills
of various brands and with an estimated value of Rp 2 billion
from five people in a raid in North Jakarta.
In the same month, police also seized 10 million counterfeit
capsules of the anti-impotence drug Supertetra and two tons of
packaging material from two separate warehouses of a firm, which
claimed to be a pharmaceutical enterprise, in Baturaja,
Tangerang.
In the early morning of Sept. 12, police confiscated 602
kilograms of marijuana, worth some Rp 1.2 billion, from four men.
Nine days later, airport officials arrested a 21-year-old
Indonesian girl and her 25-year-old brother for allegedly
attempting to smuggle 2.62 kilograms of pure heroin into the
country.
Ayu Kusumaiti and Astion Marlim were apprehended shortly after
customs officials discovered what they said was "something funny
in their shoes".
The heroin had a street value here of some Rp 2 billion.
On Sept. 27, a Singaporean national, Kow Mui Auht, 24, was
arrested at Soekarno-Hatta with 5,852 ecstasy pills strapped to
his thighs and stomach.
On the second day of October, Tangerang police arrested three
men, including a reporter, for possession of drugs in Sukarasa
subdistrict. Police found six grams of shabu-shabu on the
suspects.
On Oct. 6, 929 kilograms of marijuana, valued at some Rp 1.85
billion, were seized from a truck loaded with bananas in
Penjaringan, North Jakarta. Four men were detained.
Two days later, 12 million fake pills of least nine different
brands were confiscated from a warehouse on Jl. M. Saari in
Sunter, also in North Jakarta. A 40-year-old man, Jufri
Tumatuali, was the lone arrest.
On Nov. 10, city police detectives seized nearly 1.5 tons of
marijuana, worth about Rp 3 billion, hidden in 12 sealed oil
drums. It was the biggest haul of ganja in the past 15 years.
Alex said four Acehnese organized the delivery into the
capital from Medan, North Sumatra.
A day later, police arrested Zarina, who was on conditional
release from her 1996 drug conviction, and 12 other drug suspects
at a hotel-apartment complex on Jl. Tanjung Duren in West
Jakarta. Among the evidence was 835 ecstasy pills, 51.2 grams of
shabu-shabu, 28 pornographic movies, six bongs and two small
scales.
Zarina was immediately taken into police custody and
transferred 13 days later to Tangerang Women's Prison, where she
earlier served time.
On Dec. 8, police arrested Sofyan, a former member of the
presidential guard and former military police officer, on Jl.
Kebon Kacang Gg. 2 for allegedly possessing 22 small packets of
heroin.
Police arrested a Zimbabwean national and an Indonesian on
Dec. 12 for trying to sell 30 grams of heroin to undercover
police officers. (ylt)