North Lombok Police Handle ITE Case Involving French National Related to Drug Trafficking

Mataram (ANTARA) - North Lombok Resort Police (Polres Lotara) in West Nusa Tenggara are handling a suspected violation of the Electronic Information and Transactions Law (ITE) involving a French national with the initials LR, also known as Ali, related to a video in which he mentions the involvement of the NTB Provincial Police Chief in drug trafficking. “The case process (ITE Law) for that foreigner has already escalated to the investigation stage and the suspect has been designated,” said the Head of the Narcotics Unit at Polres Lotara, AKP I Nyoman Diana Mahardika, via telephone connection on Thursday. By conveying this, he assured that LR’s statement in his 2-minute and 20-second video is untrue. In the video, LR claims to have lost Rp12.8 billion. However, LR does not explain any correlation between the lost money and the drug case. Nyoman Diana emphasised that the video has been circulating on social media for quite some time and that his side had previously requested clarification from LR. He explained that from the in-depth questioning of LR, no evidence was found mentioning the name of the NTB Provincial Police Chief, during his tenure as Hadi Gunawan, involved in drug trafficking in North Lombok Regency. Similarly, there is no involvement of several members implicated and the name of an individual with initials MJ who is suspected of acting as a drug dealer in the Gili Trawangan, Meno, and Air tourist areas. “Both by the internal affairs unit or criminal investigation, in-depth probes have been conducted, but there is no strengthening evidence,” he said. In addition to being a suspect in the ITE case, Polres Lotara has also designated LR as a suspect in involvement in a drug case. Nyoman Diana explained that his side had previously designated LR as a suspect in the drug case. The French national was designated as a suspect in the drug case during an arrest along with one local resident in the Bayan area, North Lombok Regency. “The investigation process is already underway and we have detained two individuals. And currently, the foreigner is at stage two (transfer of evidence and suspect to the prosecutor),” he said.