Police arrest three, seize 150 kgs of marijuana in raid

JAKARTA (JP): Police seized 150 kilograms of marijuana, worth about Rp 2.25 billion (US$321,000), from three suspected drug traffickers in a single raid in Bogor early Wednesday morning, the city police detectives chief said.

Col. Alex Bambang Riatmodjo said the suspects were identified as Irfan Imam, 34, a tow-truck driver, Asnawi, 32, a driver and Azhar, 25, a businessman. All are residents of Cimanggis subdistrict in Bogor regency.

"We got the information from local (Cimanggis) residents, who complained about a truck making noises at 9 p.m. on Tuesday," Alex told reporters on Wednesday.

He said the truck was parked in front of Asnawi's rented house in Tugu area, Cimanggis subdistrict. "Asnawi was unloading goods from the truck and brought them into his house."

He said police immediately went to the site and caught Asnawi, who then let them search the house.

"Asnawi was quite helpful and asked the officer to follow him to a room on the second floor," Alex said.

"Upon reaching the second floor, Asnawi suddenly jumped from upstairs to the ground, where he fled but was later captured by residents."

Alex said police then searched the first floor, where they found 10 huge baskets of mangoes.

"The mangoes, however, were put on the top layers only. Below, police found 21 huge packages containing marijuana, which weighed 150 kilograms," he said.

The seizure was the police's second-largest haul this year, after detectives seized 245 kilograms of marijuana in July from an Aceh university student when he arrived with two friends from Aceh.

During preliminary questioning, Asnawi confessed that he was a hired driver who brought marijuana here from a farm in Aceh.

"Asnawi admitted that the mangoes were to fool police officers into believing that he was a fruit seller," Alex said, adding that Asnawi received help from Irfan and Azhar.

Watchdog

Separately, a senior customs officer suggested the central government to immediately set up an independent watchdog to keep an eye on the legal process of any drugs-related suspects in the country.

"It's an urgent matter to establish an independent body in a bid to stop drug traffickers from smuggling narcotics to Indonesia," Tonny Soenanto, head of the customs office at the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport told reporters on Wednesday.

He said he was worried about the growing drug consumption among Jakarta's students, including elementary school children.

But Tonny's real concerns could have stemmed from the fact that several drugs-related suspects, including those caught by customs officers, have reportedly walked out of cells at police stations or prosecutor's office for unknown reasons.

Such case conclusions have been reported in other criminal cases. Also it has reportedly become common that evidence for criminal cases has been found missing or partly lost. Many law enforcement officers have become frustrated at this.

Quarantine officers at the airport once questioned the whereabouts of two rare black cockatoos seized from a foreigner who was about to smuggle the protected birds overseas.

The expensive birds were reportedly taken by a senior detective officer at city police who said that the cockatoos were "needed" for evidence in the case.

Similar stories have also been told regarding drug related cases.

According to Tonny, the customs officers at the airport's international terminal have foiled at least nine smuggling attempts of drugs into the country in the first eight months of this year.

Evidence seized during the arrests consists of eight kilograms of heroin, 27 kilograms of shabu-shabu (a crystal metamphetamine), 49,020 ecstasy pills and 42 grams of cocaine.

He admitted that there must be a much larger amount of drugs that do pass the custom's check point during the same period.

"So far this year we have only had routine custom checks," Tonny explained.

The airport's customs officers on Tuesday arrested a 28-year- old Thai woman for attempting to smuggle 1.75 kilograms of pure heroin into the country.

Khanchana Thiangtum was apprehended shortly after the customs officers discovered the heroin -- which had a total street value of Rp 700 million (US$92,000) -- hidden in the sides of her travel bag.

The Thai national claimed to have no idea about the owner of the drugs. She said she was hired to bring the heroin to a hotel in Matraman, Central Jakarta, for which she was paid $2,000. (ylt/41/bsr)