Police seize one ton of heroin near Medan

Apriadi Gunawan, The Jakarta Post, Medan

Greater Medan Police officers confiscated nearly 1 ton of heroin on Tuesday in one of the country's largest drug hauls ever.

The heroin was recovered from the houses of three men in Dusun XII Bandar Khalifah, Deli Serdang regency.

Police detectives' chief Adj. Comr. Maruli Siahaan said the raid on the houses in the early hours of Tuesday followed the carrying out of surveillance in the housing complex over three days.

The three houses are located side by side.

Maruli said the police had detained the suspects, identified as Halim Siregar, 48, Ngatimin, 33, and Faisal Lubis, 30, and were questioning 10 neighbors as witnesses in connection with the finding of the 954.6 kilograms of heroin.

"We broke into the house of Abdul Halim, who then led us to the other suspects," Maruli explained. Maruli said he suspected the men had been using the houses to store heroin for quite some time.

Halim denied the accusation that he stored the heroin, saying it belonged to a man named Hidayat Efendi, whom he said had entrusted the drugs to him for four months.

"I don't know who the man is. He entrusted that heroin to me when he arrived from Aceh. I took him up on his offer as he promised me Rp 100,000 (US$136) per month," Abdul told reporters.

Aceh is widely known as being home to thousands of hectares of marijuana plantations.

Halim further said that he knew nothing about, and was not involved in, the heroin business run by Hidayat.

Following Halim's testimony, the police put Hidayat Efendi's name on the wanted list.