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)