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)