Police detectives to be honored following raid

JAKARTA (JP): National Police chief Lt. Gen. Rusdihardjo said on Friday he would honor the South Jakarta and city police detectives involved in the successful operation to break an international drug ring.

"They have shown both foreigners and locals here that our police officers are not joking about how serious the National Police force is of cleaning this country of drugs," Rusdihardjo told reporters at Jakarta Police Headquarters, on the sidelines of a visit to congratulate city police chief Maj. Gen. Noegroho Djajoesman on Thursday's heroin bust.

"We have to protect our 200 million Indonesians from this... We have to take stern action against foreigners, particularly black Africans, who commit criminal activities involving drugs."

"The National Police force will soon coordinate with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Immigration Directorate General so that they are more selective in issuing visas to black Africans."

South Jakarta Police detectives shot dead five African nationals who were allegedly members of an international drug ring. An FN 46 gun and eight bullets were seized from the dead suspects.

The police also confiscated pure heroin which was hidden in sofas, cupboards and shelves of five rooms in the building and from the hands of the suspects who tried to flee the vast two- story building before they were shot.

Late on Thursday night, the final count reached 3.5 kilograms of heroin. One hundred grams of heroin has a street value of Rp 40 million (US$5,340).

Earlier, five other Africans who were suspected of being members of an international drug ring were also shot dead in a police raid on Gg Cempaka Dua Dalam off Jl. Pangeran Antasari in Cipete, South Jakarta, on the night of Jan. 12.

Asked whether shooting armed drug suspects was necessary, Rusdihardjo said that beginning from the investigation process, to the enforcement of law in a drug case, detectives were carefully chosen.

"If the suspect is armed and he endangers the life of our police officers, why should our officers hold back?"

Earlier this year, Rusdihardjo said that African drug couriers were capable of swallowing capsules containing heroin or other kinds of drugs and keeping them in their system for more than 20 hours.

"I've been handling narcotics cases all my life. Black Africans can swallow the capsules, take a plane journey, go to a hotel and flush them out in the toilet, but not an Asian. Asians cannot handle the capsules for more than six hours ... after six hours they get diarrhea," he said.

"Nigerians, those from Cameroona and South Africa have families in the Americas. So when they return to their hometowns, they pass Spain and Latin America -- there's the influence."

National Police deputy chief of the narcotic crime division Col. Wilhelmus Laturette said on Thursday police recorded 1,534 criminal cases of narcotics, psychotropic substances, other hard drugs and liquor last year.

"Of these, at least 2,170 people were arrested out of which, 2,128 were locals. Foreigners amounted to 42, of which at least 50 percent were black Africans," Wilhelmus told reporters.

According to police data, heroin or morphine enters Indonesia via the following routes: Bangkok-Singapore-Denpasar; Pontian (Malaysia)-Tanjung Balai Karimun (Riau); Bangkok-Penang-Medan- Jakarta-Amsterdam; Kuala Lumpur-Jakarta; Bangkok-Singapore- Denpasar-Perth; Singapore-Jakarta; Singapore-Bengkalis-Tanjung Balai Asahan-Medan-Port Kelang-Ketam Island-Halang island-Bagan Siapiapi; and Bangkok-Samarinda-Korea-Japan.

Cocaine, however, enters the country via other routes: Bolivia-Denpasar; Columbia-Denpasar; Peru-Denpasar; and Brazil- Denpasar.

When asked why the X-ray and scanning equipment at Soekarno- Hatta International Airport frequently missed out on drugs leaving the country, Wilhelmus said that in his 20 years of experience with narcotics cases, he found that airport security had tightened controls on drugs entering the country, rather than that leaving it.

"When something is going out of the country, it is only metal that is checked, but when it's coming in, they have special scanners to detect drugs in luggage. Even then, our equipment only helps in a small way. What really assists in drug busts is the information from Interpol," Wilhelmus said.

Separately, Governor Sutiyoso said the city administration planned to hold an operation to apprehend foreigners without official immigration documents following Thursday's shooting of five African nationals.

"We will intensify operations to monitor foreigners, especially those without the required immigration papers," he told reporters at City Hall.

"The city administration has already scheduled an operation for March but we will bring the date forward following Thursday's shootings."(ylt/05)