Salemba Prison foils methamphetamine smuggling by a visitor

Prison officers at Salemba Class I Prison in Central Jakarta foiled the smuggling of 15 grams of methamphetamine brought by a visitor and hidden in her genital area. During the screening, officers observed suspicious movements from a female visitor identified by the initials TMA, according to Wahyu Trah Utomo, head of Salemba Prison, who was contacted in Jakarta on Friday. The smuggling was reportedly carried out on Thursday, 21 May. The incident occurred in the women’s screening area at 14:26 WIB, while female officers were conducting a body search on the visitor in line with standard operating procedures. Suspicions intensified when the visitor allegedly tried to obstruct the officers during the subsequent checks, Wahyu added. The methamphetamine was concealed in the visitor’s genital area. He noted that the thwarting was aided by the Prison Intelligence unit, which had previously received information about plans to smuggle contraband into the prison environment. Separately, Desman, head of the Salemba Prison Security Unit (KPR), said that once the evidence was found, officers secured the visitor and the items and handed them to the Cempaka Putih Police for further investigation and development. The visitor was known to be visiting an inmate named IPA, who is serving a narcotics-related sentence. Desman emphasised that authorities are increasing vigilance and tightening supervision of visiting traffic to maintain a drug-free prison environment and prevent other contraband.