Nigerian drug traffickers could face capital charges
Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
After a week of interrogation, the Jakarta City Police revealed on Thursday that eight of the 37 Nigerians arrested last week could face the maximum death sentence for drug trafficking and immigration violations.
"Those eight suspects have violated both the Immigration Law and the law on drug abuse," city police detectives chief for the drugs and narcotics division, Adj. Sr. Comr. Anjan P. Putra, told The Jakarta Post.
The eight suspects, who were nabbed along with 29 other Nigerians in a raid at a budget hotel in Tanah Abang, Central Jakarta, have been identified as: Fransisco Ugwoke, Chidi Ekemene, Chuis Okafos Imede, Arinze Frankline Duru, Gnab Nnadi, Dyke Olekamma, Eugene Ape and Joseph Samuel.
According to Law No. 22/1997 on drug abuse, if convicted, these suspects may face the death sentence.
They are also charged with Article 53 of Immigration Law No. 9/1992, which carries a maximum six years in jail, for failure to present their passports, Anjan said.
The officer said 25 other Nigerians would also be charged with the immigration violation, while the remaining four were eventually released, as they were textile traders who happened to be in the wrong place at the time of the raid.
Anjan said police were working on the dossiers of the 33 suspects.
In addition to around 300 grams of heroin, putauw (low-grade heroin) and a scale found in two suitcases, police also found out that some of the suspects had swallowed sausage-like packages filled with heroin.
The drug bust took place at the Tanah Abang Indah Hotel, only a few hundred meters away from the Tanah Abang textile market, which was gutted by a fire that burned for four days last week.
The men were apprehended after police received tips from residents, who said that Mamanda Restaurant in Tanah Abang had become a meeting point for drug traffickers to make transactions.
Anjan said police found it difficult to question the Nigerian suspects, as they were uncooperative.
"They can speak English, but they often communicated with each other using their native language to obstruct our interrogation," said Anjan.
Anjan said Nigerians were generally known to be textile traders in Tanah Abang, pointing at the four who had eventually been released by the police.
"But some of them are involved in drug trafficking or counterfeit operations here," said the officer.
Last year, police arrested three Nigerians at Regency Melati Mas housing estate in Serpong, Tangerang, on Aug. 22, 2002, for allegedly smuggling 5.9 kilograms of heroin into the country. The three are the late Izuchukwu Okoloaja, alias Kholisan Nkomo, 25, Michael Titus Igweh, 23, and Hillary K. Chimezie, 33.
The three defendants were acquitted upon a ruling by the Tangerang District Court on Feb. 4, citing legal technicalities, but the police recaptured them. Okoloaja died while he was under police custody.
"We've completed the dossiers (for Igweh and Chimezie). Next week, we will submit the dossiers to the prosecutors," Anjan said.