Police seize 8,000 ecstasy pills, arrest for in major drug bust

JAKARTA (JP): Police have arrested four people believed to be members of a drug syndicate, seizing nearly 8,000 ecstasy pills from the suspects, an officer said on Friday.

City police spokesman Sr. Comr. Anton Bachrul Alam identified the suspects as Irwan, Fanny, Avon (alias Andreas Prasetio) and Asue.

Irwan was apprehended on Monday at his residence in Pluit, North Jakarta. During his arrest, police confiscated 3,940 ecstasy pills, 150 grams of shabu-shabu (crystal metamphetamine), a press machine used to make ecstasy pills, a box containing chemical ingredients, and an FN pistol of .22 caliber.

Based on information from Irwan, suspected to be the producer and supplier of the ecstasy pills, police then arrested his accomplices, Fanny, Avon and Asue, at a suite in the Taman Anggrek Tower apartments in West Jakarta.

"In the second arrest, police confiscated 3,941 ecstasy pills, 20 grams of shabu-shabu and Rp 440 million in cash," Anton told a press conference.

Avon denied that the money was related to the drug business, saying that he had just withdrawn it from a bank and planned to use it to pay his debts.

"I owe my business colleague. I don't know why police have to take the money with them, it has nothing to with the ecstasy business," Avon said, claiming that police had apprehended the wrong people.

Two of the suspects, Fanny and Avon, admitted to having been arrested and tried in similar cases. Each of them received several months imprisonment.

Anton said police would develop the case further because detectives suspected that the four people arrested were members of a major drug syndicate with international links.(emf)