Police burn Rp 56b worth drugs

Police burn Rp 56b worth drugs

Multa Fidrus and Theresia Sufa, The Jakarta Post, Tangerang/Bogor

The National Narcotics Agency (BNN) and Jakarta Police burned
kilograms of drugs on Thursday that were confiscated in a four-
month antidrug campaign that also saw the arrest of 22 drug
dealers nationwide.

The drugs, incinerated in Tangerang, Banten, were 1,326 grams
of heroin, 850 grams of cocaine, 585.2 kilos of marijuana, 54.05
kilos of crystal methamphetamine, eight kilos of liquid crystal
methamphetamine, 208,238 ecstasy pills and 24.86 kilos of ecstasy
powder.

"We estimate that all of the drugs were worth Rp
56,203,400,000. We confiscated the drugs from 22 dealers in 14
cases," said Adj. Comr. Sugeng, chief of the Jakarta Police
narcotics unit.

BNN chief Insp. Gen. Sutanto said that judging by several big
arrests and the confiscation of large amounts of drugs in Jakarta
and West Java, Indonesia had become a major ecstasy producer over
the past several years.

He said that the destroyed drugs were only a fraction of the
drugs circulating in the country, but they would still have had a
great impact on the younger generation.

"We already have an image as being one of the most corrupt
nations in the world, and now we are a big producer and supplier
of drugs. That's why we will continue to join hands to fight drug
abuse in the country," Sutanto said.

Police made dozens of major drug arrests and confiscated a
great deal of narcotics in the first five months of the year.

Dozens of drug traffickers, mostly foreign nationals, have
been sentenced to death by the Tangerang and Denpasar district
courts.

However, some smugglers still consider trying to brig drugs
into the country worth the risk.

There are an estimated four million drug users in the country,
most of them teenagers.

The Tangerang District Court will to try over a dozen drug
suspects in the not too distant future, while over 20 people are
on death row in Tangerang.

Meanwhile, Bogor Prosecutor's Office also destroyed drugs on
Thursday that were kept as evidence in trials that went to court
between March 2004 and June 2005.

The office destroyed 18.3 kilograms of marijuana, 26.5 grams
of heroin, 2.062 kilograms of crystal methamphetamine, 12,000
ecstasy pills and 664 lexotan pills.

Bogor Prosecutor's Office chief Marabangun Harahap said the
drugs came from 59 cases handled in the past year.

"The destroyed drugs came from evidence from cases that have
be ruled on by the courts. We will continue to be tough on drug
dealers," he said.