Heroin and our shipping ports

Heroin and our shipping ports

Indonesia is not a heroin-producing country; Indonesia imports heroin from other countries.

Soekarno-Hatta International Airport remains the nation's number one hotspot for uncovering individuals smuggling putaw (low-grade heroin) into our country. On any given week you can read an article about a man or woman from Nigeria, Thailand, Pakistan, or some other foreign land found to be smuggling heroin into our country.

Putaw remains the nation's number one drug of choice with addicts. Putaw is one of the world's best "painkillers", and is a highly addictive narcotic.

Young Indonesians, males and females, (mostly between the ages of 18 and 28) make up the largest proportion of those who use, abuse, and become addicted to putaw.

It works like magic ... putaw taken intravenously begins to work in nine to 14 seconds, a little longer when smoked or snorted.

In just a few seconds all physical and emotional pain and stress ebb away, and it is replaced by an incredible and wonderful euphoric state of well-being and blissful peace, which lasts for several hours.

At present, the Jabotabek area is where the largest amount of putaw in the nation is transported and used.

There are estimated to be some 50,000-plus addicts throughout the greater Jabotabek Area (estimates range from the low hundreds of thousands to a million-plus addicts throughout the nation at present).

This means it would take three to 10-plus kilograms of 100 percent pure heroin, cut four to eight times for street use, to supply more than 100,000 addicts with 0.25 gram of heroin per day. (Many addicts use 0.5g to one gram per day, more on special occasions, and more when they have extra money.)

Question? Why do we never hear anything about drugs busts, seizures or arrests at shipping ports?

Ships and boats are the means by which the largest quantities of heroin arrive in our country, not airplanes -- 100 kg or even 500 kg are easily hidden or concealed within a 20 foot or 40 foot shipping container.

To move large quantities of heroin you need people, boats and ships. There must be a solid hierarchy and system of protection safeguarded by organized crime syndicates or mafia.

There must also be inside support and assistance from corrupt individuals holding governmental jobs and positions, corrupt port authorities and customs officials, along with military involvement and protection, police involvement and protection.

There must be well-established traffic routes and traffickers, along with groups of experienced dealers (from high-end dealers who move kilos, to small-time street dealers who move grams).

All this must be in place and in working order when moving large quantities of illicit drugs.

Logically, if hundreds of kilos of heroin arrive in our country every month, we must consider the arrival points must be our shipping ports.

Customs is notorious for corruption, making the entrance of illicit drugs into the country via shipping ports relatively easy for drug syndicates, in collusion with corrupt port authorities or individuals. -- David and Joyce Djaelani Gordon