Former athlete netted for drug sale

Former athlete netted for drug sale

JAKARTA (JP): A former national billiards athlete was arrested
yesterday on charges of having sold Ecstasy pills at a
discotheque at Central Hotel in Central Jakarta.

Central Jakarta Police Chief Lt. Col. Abubakar Nataprawira
said the man, identified as Rud, 38, was apprehended by the
police as he came out of the hotel on Jl. Pramuka.

"We seized 25 Ecstasy pills, which were the pink and butterfly
types, behind the seat of his motorcycle," Abubakar said.

He said the police also seized Rp 900,000 (US$382.97) from
Rud, formerly a national billiards athlete.

During preliminary interrogation, Rud admitted to becoming an
Ecstasy retailer in May this year, Abubakar said.

The father of five children bought the Ecstasy pills in the
Mangga Besar area in West Jakarta.

He bought them for Rp 40,000 each and sold them for Rp 50,000
each.

Rud, a resident of Jl. Ikan Mas, Pulo Gadung district in East
Jakarta, said he is jobless.

The South Jakarta police arrested a man on July 29 for
allegedly possessing and selling Ecstasy pills at a bowling alley
at the Blok M shopping center in South Jakarta.

Puspo Irianto was arrested with 570 Ecstasy pills worth Rp 30
million in his sports bag.

On July 26, Soekarno-Hatta Airport's customs and excise
officers arrested a man for smuggling 13,000 Ecstasy pills worth
more than Rp 1.3 billion.

The man smuggled the pills from Rotterdam, the Netherlands via
Frankfurt, Germany on a Lufthansa airliner.

The smuggling was the sixth in the past five months, mostly
originating from Rotterdam.

Ecstasy pills have prompted crackdowns. Police made several
crackdowns at discotheques and nightspots in the city.

The crackdowns have been criticized as violations of privacy.

At least two women in Jakarta have died from drug overdoses.
The forensic unit at Cipto Mangunkusumo Hospital believed that
the women, who died in separate incidents, swallowed some Ecstasy
pills. (jun)