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.