Police officers detained for bribes
Eva C. Komandjaja, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta
Two middle-ranking police investigators from the antidrug squad at the National Police Headquarters have been detained as suspects for allegedly accepting bribes from drug dealers.
Head of the internal affairs division Insp. Gen. Yusuf Manggabarani said on Friday that Comr. DM and Adj. Comr. GS had been detained on Wednesday for allegedly abusing their authority as police officers.
"Power abuse is a crime and also an indisciplinary action, therefore we will investigate both cases at the internal affairs level as well as at the criminal level," Yusuf said.
Although Yusuf did not specify what kind of power abuse the two officers had committed, a source within the police said that both of the officers had accepted bribes amounting to Rp 3 billion (US$300,000) from Benny Sudradjat, the owner of a giant ecstasy factory that was raided in Serang, Banten, last week.
The two officers were allegedly caught with the money in their possession while helping the suspect escape from the police raid. Benny allegedly had on his person a large amount of money that he gave to the officers so that they would not arrest him.
However, investigators from the antidrug division, along with investigators from the National Narcotics Agency (BNN), arrested Benny along with 14 other suspects, including foreign nationals from France, the Netherlands and China.
The factory contained around 62.4 tons of precursor chemicals for producing crystal methamphetamine, locally referred to as shabu-shabu, and 6.2 tons of precursor chemicals for making ecstasy, as well as thousands of ecstasy pills and hundreds of kilograms of methamphetamine ready for delivery to Hong Kong.
"The officers could face a disciplinary hearing soon and have their cases tried in a public court for the criminal aspect," Yusuf said.
He further said that both of the officers were still undergoing intensive questioning by the internal affairs division.
Previously, one-star general Brig. Gen. Samuel Ismoko and middle-ranking officer Sr. Comr. Irman Santoso faced a disciplinary hearing and were detained for accepting bribes from Adrian Waworuntu, a suspect in the high-profile Bank Negara Indonesia (BNI) scandal.