Police indifferent to fighting drugs

YOGYAKARTA: The provincial legislature blamed on Tuesday the intensifying drug trade in the town on local police, whom they accused of lacking initiatives to crack down on the dealers.

"Police have not yet performed well in clamping down the distribution of illegal drugs. Yogyakarta has become one of main destinations of drug trafficking in the country," legislator Totok Daryanto from the National Mandate Party (PAN) told a media conference after a hearing with Yogyakarta Police Chief Brig. Gen. Dadang Sutrisno.

Totok was referring to the arrest of six police personnel who were caught red-handed consuming shabu-shabu (crystal methampethamine) in early September.

"How can the public trust the police if they are involved in drug dealing," Totok said.

The police, three of them officers, had been questioned and were facing a military tribunal, according to Dadang.

Dadang said police had completed an investigation into 33 drug abuse cases up to Oct. 31 and had arrested 57 suspects. More than 160 grams of shabu-shabu, 27 grams of low grade heroin locally called putaw, 20 kilograms marijuana, 280 ecstasy pills and 416 barbiturates pills had been seized. (44/emf)