Police shoot dead suspected drug dealer, seize 200 grams of heroin
Police shoot dead suspected drug dealer, seize 200 grams of heroin
JAKARTA (JP): City police detectives shot dead a 26-year-old
Liberian drug dealer at his rented home on Friday evening, an
officer said.
The officer, who requested anonymity, said the dealer,
identified as Harmon Lawrence, resisted arrest when police
apprehended him with 200 grams of pure heroin at his home.
"The residents of Kebon Kacang had alerted us almost two weeks
ago about this man. We finally got him," the officer said.
Suminto, a staff member at Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital
morgue, said Harmon's body, which was brought in at 8:20 p.m. on
Friday, was visited 20 minutes later by four men and one woman.
"They were all black people. The woman was beautiful. She said
she wanted to see the body of Harmon. When I asked who she was,
she said she was Harmon's business partner, and then she asked
how Capt. Sumingga was doing. I was confused," Suminto said.
Capt. Sumingga is a City Police detective who is one of many
officers responsible for several drug busts in the capital over
the past two months.
"When I looked confused, she waited for a while, and then
left, saying that she lived somewhere on Jl. Mardani in Central
Jakarta. I immediately alerted city police," Suminto said.
Separately, police arrested the capital's former "Ecstasy
Queen" Zarima Mirasfur over drugs late Friday night, sources at
city police said.
City police chief of detectives Col. Alex Bambang Riatmodjo,
however, denied that any such arrest was made.
He said that Zarima was visiting her brother, who was arrested
last month during a police drug operation.
Zarima was arrested in Jakarta on Aug. 7, 1997, when police
found 29,677 Ecstasy pills, then worth Rp 1.78 billion, in her
house in West Jakarta.
She later escaped from Jakarta police, went to the U.S., where
she was arrested in a supermarket in Houston, Texas.
She was brought back to Jakarta soon after, where she served
time in prison.
However, Alex said on Sunday that the police have been keeping
a close watch on Zarima but refused to mention in what context.
"I will inform you later if the data is complete," he said.
Chief of city police narcotics division detectives, Lt. Col.
Abdullah, said on Sunday that Zarima was questioned on Friday as
a witness in an investigation into Budiman, a drug dealer who was
caught in a shabu-shabu (crystal methamphetamine) party in
Kemanggisan, West Jakarta, in February.
Media reports, however, found no such case with a suspect
called Budiman. There was a shabu-shabu case in Kemanggisan in
February but the suspect's named was Bramantyo.
Another officer from the city police detectives unit said
Zarima was questioned in connection with an investigation into 12
millions fake pills in Sunter last week. Budiman is an alias for
Jufri, one of the three suspects in that case.
When contacted over the phone by The Jakarta Post, Zarima
declined to comment about her presence at Police Headquarters on
Saturday. Another police source said she has been detained at
headquarters since Friday night. (04/ylt)