Hundreds of weapons seized from jails in police raids
JAKARTA (JP): In a preplanned raid, East Jakarta Police and Tangerang Police confiscated hundreds of weapons at Cipinang Penitentiary in East Jakarta, and the men's penitentiary in Tangerang on Sunday.
The raids came two days after Friday's jailbreak by two suspects in last year's bombing of the Jakarta Stock Exchange (JSX) building from Cipinang Penitentiary and five days after brawls in Tangerang Penitentiary.
Police confiscated knives, swords, sickles, machetes and other dangerous weapons from the prisoners' jail cells at Cipinang jail, according to East Jakarta Police chief of detectives Comr. Agus Irianto.
"Many of the weapons were fashioned by the prisoners themselves and hidden under their beds and in potted plants. The weapons filled up at least four to five gunnysacks.
"We also confiscated a marijuana plant being grown inside the jail, ecstasy pills, shabu-shabu (crystal methamphetamines), smoking devices for shabu-shabu and other drugs from the jail cells," Agus told The Jakarta Post on Sunday.
Agus added that the weapons found inside the jail clearly portrayed the extreme laxness in security in the prison.
"This clearly shows the (possible) corruption of prison guards," Agus said.
He added that almost anything from sharp weapons, firearms and grenades to cellphones, could be smuggled into prisons here.
Tangerang Police held a similar raid for sharp weapons at the Men's Tangerang Penitentiary.
Police confiscated hundreds of weapons, including catapults, knives, swords and homemade bombs.
The huge number of weapons seized by police indicated that the prison inmates were preparing for a huge fight within the prison, following last Tuesday' brawl over a frying pan, which sent three inmates to the hospital.
Agus also said that the police were questioning four witnesses over the escape of Irwansyah and Nuryadin, suspects of the JSX building bombing, from the Cipinang Penitentiary.
Police rearrested suspect Irwansyah, a former member of the Army's Special Forces (Kopassus), minutes after his escape, but suspect Nuryadin managed to get away on a stolen motorcycle.
"We are currently questioning four prison guards, including chief of security at the prison and Silalahi, who had been held at gunpoint by the suspects, before they escaped. The other three guards being questioned are Simbolon, Norman and Tumingan," Agus said.
He added that Irwansyah and Nuryadin had possibly made contact with at least one of two JSX bombing suspects who had escaped from prison, during their visits to court for their trials.
"When Irwansyah and Nuryadin appeared in court recently for their trials, we believe they made contact with at least one suspect who had earlier escaped from prison," Agus said.
On July 16, Second. Corp. Ibrahim Hasan, of the Army Strategic Reserves Command (Kostrad), escaped when a car transporting him to a hospital had a flat tire.
Another of the nine suspects in the JSX blast, Ibrahim Abdul Wahab, 40, escaped from his cell at Cipinang Penitentiary by climbing the wall with a rope thrown to a tree outside the high prison walls in February this year. (ylt)