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)