Police raid nets biggest ganja haul in 15 years
JAKARTA (JP): Police detectives of the Penjaringan police subprecinct in North Jakarta seized 929 kilograms of marijuana, worth about Rp 1.85 billion (US$238,200) from four of seven suspected drug dealers in a single raid early on Wednesday morning.
North Jakarta Police Chief of Detectives Capt. Syafril Nursal identified the four suspects as Chaerudin, 23, Suhedi, 24, Ahai, 23, and Sultan, 35.
"This is probably the biggest ganja haul of the past 15 years. The whole police unit is so proud of the Penjaringan police for making this bust," Syafril told reporters at the Penjaringan police subprecinct.
"The bust was made at about 12:30 a.m. at the Air Baja complex, Block I, Pejagalan subdistrict, North Jakarta."
Syafril said that at about 12:15 a.m. Thayeb, a security guard at the Air Baja complex, saw "something very weird" happening.
"Thayeb told me that crew members of a truck parked at the complex, were unloading baskets of bananas from the truck, and carelessly kicking and crushing the bananas with their feet," Syafril said.
"Thayeb found this odd. When the truck's crew members had unloaded the top row of the banana baskets, they started unloading heavy-looking square packets, which were hidden in the bottom, and loading those packets into a Suzuki Carry minibus, and an Isuzu Panther van, which were already parked there."
Syafril said Thayeb immediately locked the main gates of the complex, and alerted the Penjaringan police subprecinct.
"The Penjaringan officers came, and checked the packets in the minibus and the van. It was Aceh marijuana."
Syafril said that while four suspects got away, two of them, Chaerudin and Suhedi, were caught on the spot.
"The truck was parked in front of the home of Ahai, the seventh suspect. Ahai later confessed that the marijuana was for someone named Dichi, in Pancoran, South Jakarta," he said.
Sultan was caught on Wednesday morning, at about 5 a.m.
Syafril said that Chaerudin and Suhedi had so far told the police that they were only truck drivers whose truck was chartered by a man in Jakarta, whose name they did not know.
In a related development, city police chief of detectives Col. Alex Bambang Riatmodjo said on Wednesday that according to his information, nearly a ton of marijuana is driven into the capital each week.
"Every week, one ton is driven into the capital. I request all city residents to stay on alert, and let us know of anything weird they see," Alex told reporters.
He added that currently he was focussing on a big shabu-shabu (crystal methamphetamine) bust in the capital.
City police seized 602 kilograms of marijuana, worth about Rp 1.2 billion, from four of five suspected drug dealers in a single raid in late September.
Capt. Syafi'i of the city police detective corps, who led the raid, said in September that they had received the tip-off about the drugs came from residents of Lengkong Wetan, Serpong subdistrict, Tangerang.
In July, city police detectives seized 245 kilograms of marijuana from an Aceh university student who had recently returned from Aceh with two friends. (ylt)