Fishermen Discover 25 Kilograms of Cocaine Floating off Selayar Coast, South Sulawesi

Fishermen in Selayar Islands Regency, South Sulawesi, have discovered a package suspected to contain 25 kilograms of cocaine of Colombian origin floating in the ocean.

“Yes, that is correct. The laboratory examination results and our own test equipment also confirmed positive for cocaine,” said Aipda Suardi Andre, Deputy Head of Public Relations for Selayar Police Headquarters, to CNNIndonesia.com on Saturday (14 March).

Andre explained that the discovery of cocaine occurred between 28 February and 9 March.

“The discovery took place over nearly two weeks – first on 28 February, then on 9 March, and finally last night when the military commander handed over the items to the police chief,” he said.

Andre noted that local residents discovered three separate packages on different occasions and handed them over to authorities for investigation at two locations: Bontosikuyu Sub-district and Bontomanai Sub-district.

“In total, there were three discoveries – the first discovery yielded one package, the second discovery four packages, and the third discovery, which the fishermen handed over to the village security official, comprised 20 packages. Some packages were already damaged,” he explained.

According to Andre, the contraband was found alongside several packages containing shoes.

“Shoes marked with ‘Columbia’ were found near the packages at both Bontosikuyu and Bontomanai,” he said.