Five drug dealers arrested for kidnapping
JAKARTA (JP): Police arrested five alleged drug dealers during a raid on a Central Jakarta house yesterday and rescued a woman who the group are believed to have kidnapped.
City police spokesman Lt. Col. E. Aritonang said the five had kidnapped the woman to blackmail her brother, who allegedly failed to supply them with drugs.
"The five suspects were angry with the woman's brother."
Aritonang identified the five suspects as Edwin, Mintarnya Fadha, Helmy Sorasah, Yulian and Hello Adityadharma.
He said they abducted the 21-year-old victim, Melani Maryani Sinambela, late Monday and took her to the house on Jl. Otista Raya, which belonged to one of the suspects.
"The suspects called the victim's family early yesterday morning and asked for a ransom of Rp 1.2 million. But it still isn't clear whether they asked the victim's brother, in particular, to pay the ransom.
"In response to the suspects' threat, the family called East Jakarta Police for help."
Aritonang said officers raided the house about 3:40 a.m. yesterday and found the victim unharmed.
According to the suspects, the victim's brother -- identified only as R -- had treated them unfairly in their last drug deal.
"R received Rp 400,000 a couple of days ago and promised to give us some putauw (third-grade heroin). But R never fulfilled his promise and kept trying to avoid us," Aritonang quoted one of the suspects as saying.
He said R had not been arrested. "He has only been questioned as a witness so far."
Aritonang said R and the five suspects had allegedly been involved in drug deals for more than two months.
The suspects were still being interrogated yesterday afternoon at East Jakarta Police precinct.
He said the group had violated Article 328 of the Criminal Code on kidnapping. If found guilty, the five will face a maximum of 12 years in jail.
If they are convicted of being drug dealers, they will face a maximum of 10 years in jail or Rp 300 million for violating Article 82 of 1997 Narcotics Law No. 22. (cst)