Over 100,000 Ecstasy pills, marijuana go up in flames

TANGERANG (JP): The local prosecutor's office has destroyed 104,919 Ecstasy pills and six kilograms of marijuana -- worth more than Rp 4 billion (US$1.1 million) -- which were smuggled into the country.

The head of the office, Abdul Hakim Ritonga, who led the operation yesterday, said Tangerang Police Deputy Chief Maj. Herman Hamid and the head of customs at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, Nisfu Chasbullah, acted as overseers.

"The destruction of the pills and marijuana is one of the largest on record."

Customs officers discovered the drugs, which were confiscated and used as evidence for 23 trials at Tangerang District Court, Ritonga said.

Seventeen people would be tried for trafficking the drugs -- five Indonesians, seven Singaporeans, three Dutch, a Hong Konger and an Irish.

He said the Ecstasy pills were wrapped in aluminum foil, toy packages, speaker boxes, food packages or coffee jars to avoid detection.

Some of the traffickers also put pills in their socks and shoes or hid them around their waists, he said.

Pills were left at the airport when the smugglers feared customs officers were suspicious.

He said some people had been sentenced, including an Indonesian woman, who got eight months in jail and was fined Rp 2 million for trafficking 9,020 pills, and Lim Bu Bikasih from Hong Kong, who got eight years in jail and was fined Rp 2 million for trafficking 8,609 pills.

Ritonga said another 116,000 Ecstasy pills would be destroyed.

"We are still waiting for permission from the Supreme Court."

He said 3.6 kilograms of heroin -- worth Rp 5 billion -- was submitted to the city's health office yesterday for analysis.

Three heroin dealers have recently been sentenced to life: Prem Kumar Rai from Hong Kong and May Win and Ram Lal Maharjan from Myanmar, he said.

The prosecutor's office also handed over seven confiscated guns -- a Baretta, Luger, Sig Shover and Colt -- to Tangerang Police Precinct. (41/jun)