Pilot dismissed for drug abuse

Abdul Khalik, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

After being arrested for taking drugs early on Thursday, Johan, 29, a pilot of PT Mandala Airlines (not Garuda Indonesia as reported earlier), was fired on Friday.

Mandala spokesman Alex Widjojo said that the company had decided to fire Johan immediately after police arrested him.

"Actually, we have grounded him since last week for misconduct. After police arrested him, we fired him immediately," he said.

Alex said Mandala would conduct urine tests for all of its pilots and employees to determine whether other employees were also taking drugs.

Johan and his two friends, identified as Ella Magdalena and Hadi Kadar, were arrested early on Thursday in a house in Berlan complex in Matraman, East Jakarta, for taking shabu-shabu (crystal methamphetamine).

Police also confiscated around 20 grams of shabu-shabu and drug paraphernalia inside the house.

Police said that preliminary evidence showed that Johan was just a drug user, while Ella and her husband Hadi Kadar owned the drug.

East Jakarta deputy police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Hilman said that Ella had told police that she got the drug from someone in Kampung Ambon in East Jakarta.

"We are now trying to locate the people who supply Ella with the drug. We believe that she is a member of a drug syndicate," he told The Jakarta Post.

Hilman said that the three suspects were still being intensively interrogated at the East Jakarta Police station.

He said that they would all be charged under Articles 81 and 82 of Law No. 22/1997 on psychotropic substances that carries a maximum punishment of 15 years imprisonment.