Police officer arrested for drug dealing
Abdul Khalik, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
A police officer at the Bekasi Police precinct, identified as Comr. Nazarudin, was arrested last Friday by the North Jakarta police for drug dealing.
Jakarta Police Internal Affairs chief Sr. Comr. Anwaruddin said on Sunday that his division was now handling the case involving Nazarudin, the intelligence unit chief of Bekasi Police.
"We are still interrogating him so I can't talk much. We hope we can reveal it to you soon," he told The Jakarta Post.
According to several sources, Nazarudin was arrested at the Hai-Lai discotheque in Ancol, North Jakarta last Friday following a tipoff from a drug-dealer nabbed earlier.
"The arrested drug dealer said that he got the drugs from Nazarudin. So, we arrested him," a source at the North Jakarta Police said.
Meanwhile, in Jakarta, a man identified as Haryanto Sembiring, who police officers say is a big-time drug dealer, was arrested with 22 ready-to-sell packages of putaw (low grade heroin) in his house on Jl. Bendi Besar in Kebayoran Lama, South Jakarta over the weekend.
South Jakarta police chief of operations Adj. Comr. Hendro W. said Haryanto was a long-time player in the drug-trafficking business and had been under police surveillance for nearly a year.
"We have listed Jl. Bendi Besar and its surrounding areas as a drug-prone area of Jakarta and Haryanto is one of the main traffickers there," he told The Jakarta Post on Sunday.
After many reports from local residents, a group of police officers raided Haryanto's house on Saturday. Several members of Haryanto's group, however, had left Haryanto's house just before the police arrived there.
"We will also investigate why they were able to get away. If we find that one of our police officers gave them information about our plan, then we will take action against that officer. If we can capture the rest of the members, we can cleanse the area of drugs," Hendro said.
The police are in the midst of an ongoing crackdown on drug abuse in Greater Jakarta and launched dozens of raids over the last two months.
While concentrating mostly on nightclubs, police also have focused on cleaning up neighborhoods notorious for drug abuse and trafficking, including Tanah Abang in Central Jakarta, Tambora and Kota in West Jakarta and Depok in West Java.
The chief of the Jakarta Police's drug unit, Carlo Brix Tewu, said earlier that his officers had managed to arrest hundreds of people on drug charges in a host of discotheques and slum areas since the special operation began.
"We have arrested over 600 people so far. We are now preparing them for trial. We will continue to conduct similar operations in the next few months," he told the Post.
Carlo said each police precinct had been given a quota of 15 drug busts that lead to a conviction, while each subprecinct was given five.
Meanwhile, Depok police managed to arrest 11 members of what they claim was a drug syndicate, and confiscated over two kilograms of marijuana and several grams of shabu shabu (crystal methamphetamine) in the Limo area of Depok on Saturday.
Limo subprecinct chief Adj. Comr. Ade Rhamat Idnal said that the 11 suspects came from two different drug syndicates that have long been operating in Depok.
The 11 suspects are Zulkifli, 19, Ferdi, 20, Herdi Silfa, 25, Zefri Zuwandi, 26, Malik Bin Karto, 26, Indra Gunawan, 23, Rio Ulhaq, 28, Adam Gure, 30, Zul Izmi, 22, Marsudin, 21, and Nasril, 18.