Ex-IBRA official faces drug trial
Ex-IBRA official faces drug trial
Abdul Khalik, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The trial of former deputy chairman of the defunct Indonesian
Bank Restructuring Agency (IBRA) Taufik Mappaenre Ma'ruf began
on Tuesday, with prosecutors indicting him on drug charges, which
carries a punishment of up to 15 years.
Prosecutor M. Irfan Sanjaya said in the first hearing at the
Tangerang District Court that Taufik was apprehended with 3.1
grams of marijuana in his possession at the Soekarno-Hatta
International Airport on April 22.
Taufik, then a commissioner of state-owned Asset Management
Company (PPA), was arrested by airport police on his way to Bali
for a vacation.
Initially, customs officers only checked his bag but they
observed Taufik throw something from his pocket into a trash can
not far from the check point.
Taufik's action raised suspicions prompting the officers to
retrieve and examine the small package Taufik threw away. They
found that it was a package of marijuana. Taufik was then handed
over to the police.
Taufik subsequently resigned from his post as commissioner of
PPA several days after the incident.
Banten Prosecutor's Office head Kemas Yahya Rahman said that
prosecutors charged Taufik with illegally possessing and using
marijuana, not drug trafficking.
"We have no evidence that he is a trafficker," he told The
Jakarta Post on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, Jakarta Police announced on Tuesday that they had
closed down a factory capable of producing 3,000 ecstasy pills a
day in Duri Kepa, Kembangan, West Jakarta on Monday.
City police spokesman Sr. Comr. Tjiptono said that police had
arrested the factory owner identified as Ayung, 44, alias Yogi,
confiscated factory equipment, various chemicals for making
ecstasy and 2,000 pills ready for distribution.
"Ayung has been in the drug business for a long time. He is a
major drug supplier in Jakarta," he said.
Jakarta Police are in the midst of a campaign against drug
trafficking in the capital. Police chief Insp. Gen. Firman Gani
has ordered precinct chiefs to arrest at least 32 traffickers in
their respective area.
In the last two weeks, around 90 drug dealers were nabbed by
East Jakarta Police in several locations across the municipality
while last week Jakarta Police arrested four suspected members of
a drug syndicate and confiscated 176 kilograms of marijuana.
Last week, police announced a major drug raid, confiscating 55
kilograms of methamphetamine (shabu shabu) and 70,000 ecstasy
pills in two different places in West Jakarta. Police arrested in
the raid a member of an international syndicate, identified as
Akwan, 41, alias Tjik Kwang, alias Ricky Chandra.
Earlier, police revealed that they had arrested four suspected
drug dealers and confiscated 8,500 ecstasy pills and 100 grams of
shabu shabu in three separate locations in the city.
Two suspected drug dealers identified as Ray Angela, 27, alias
Sherly, and Purwanto Nugroho, 31, alias Kiki, were apprehended in
Sunter Hijau, North Jakarta while another suspected trafficker
identified as Lie Jie Tek, 44, was arrested in Gunung Sahari,
Central Jakarta.