Police seize 55,400 ecstasy tablets
Police seize 55,400 ecstasy tablets
Evi Mariani, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
A joint police team confiscated on Thursday 55,400 ecstasy pills from a building in Cengkareng, West Jakarta, and arrested two guards. The owners of the shop-house, however, are still at large.
This was the second largest ecstasy seizure by police since April 2002.
"Our investigation of the syndicate's bank account shows that there is about Rp 4 billion (US$476,190) in circulation from their drug dealing," the head of the joint team, Sr. Comr. Indradi Tanos of the National Police's narcotics division, said.
One ecstasy pill costs between Rp 70,000 and Rp 120,000 on the street.
The joint team -- comprising officers from the National Police and the Bali, Jakarta, Riau, East Java and North Sumatra police forces -- arrested two guards at the shop-house on Jl. Kompleks Ruko Pelangi in Cengkareng on Jan. 2. However, the owners of the building, identified as Joni and his wife Merry, were not present at the time of the raid and the guards claimed not to know their whereabouts.
A portable ecstasy producing machine, with the capacity to produce about 3,000 pills an hour, was also seized during the raid.
In April 2002, a National Police team raided an ecstasy lab in Tangerang that was producing about 150,000 pills per day, or 6,250 pills an hour.
The owner of the lab, Ang Kiem Soei, was sentenced to death by the Tangerang District Court, but he is appealing the decision to the Tangerang High Court.
Officer Indradi said police had also arrested six alleged couriers for an international heroin syndicate in the first week of January. The syndicate operates in Pakistan, Thailand and Indonesia.
Four of the six suspects are Nigerian citizens, one is from Swaziland and the other is a South African citizen. The six had swallowed balloons containing a total of 3.5 kilograms of heroin.
One of the alleged couriers was involved in the police shooting at the Millenium Hotel in Central Jakarta on Jan. 5, which left two officers from the National Police injured.
The six suspects are being held at the Jakarta Police Headquarters.