Seventh drug arrest of year nets five
Evi Mariani, Jakarta
The Jakarta Police announced on Thursday they had arrested five suspected drug dealers in a week-long operation and seized 11.16 kilograms of shabu-shabu (crystal methamphetamine) and 10,000 ecstasy pills from them, worth around Rp 6 billion (US$645,161).
It was the seventh arrest of suspected drug dealers made by the city police this year.
The suspects were identified as BS, ROW, MI, RS and AKL.
They will be charged with violating Law No. 5/1997 on psychotropics. The maximum sentence under the law is 15 years imprisonment and a fine of Rp 150 million.
City police narcotics division chief Sr. Comr. Carlo Tewu, said the police had received a tipoff on Saturday of a drug transaction that would be carried out at a house in Pondok Labu, South Jakarta that evening.
A team of narcotics detectives raided the house at 10 p.m and arrested BS, who had in his possession a gram of marijuana and 100 grams of shabu-shabu.
BS informed the detectives of the identity of his accomplices.
ROW was subsequently arrested at another house in Sawah Besar, Central Jakarta, on Monday at 1 p.m, where 1.3 kilograms of shabu-shabu was found.
ROW told the police that he got the drugs from MI, who was arrested on Monday afternoon near his house, with a kilogram of shabu-shabu in his possession.
The police then headed to Kemayoran, Central Jakarta, to arrest RS at 7 p.m., based on MI's information. From RS, the police confiscated another kilogram of shabu-shabu.
Three hours later, the police apprehended AKL, a Singaporean who has an Indonesian passport and a Jakarta ID card.
"He claimed to be an Indonesian, but he doesn't speak Indonesian fluently. Our preliminary investigation has led us to believe he is a Singaporean," Carlo said, adding that "suspect RS is actually the wife of AKL."
AKL was arrested at an apartment in Kemayoran, Central Jakarta, on Monday at 10 p.m. After searching the apartment, the police seized 8.26 kilograms of shabu-shabu divided among 45 plastic bags, and 4,000 ecstasy pills divided among 17 plastic bags.
The police suspect AKL is the leader of the drug syndicate.
They estimate that the evidence is worth around Rp 6 billion, as the street value of a gram of shabu-shabu in Jakarta is Rp 500,000, and an ecstasy pill is sold for around Rp 80,000.
Carlo had earlier said that the number of drug users in Jakarta had increased by 20 percent to 30 percent yearly, despite the police's efforts to crack down on drug dealers and drug users.
According to the National Narcotics Body (BNN), Indonesia has become a target market for international drug traffickers because many countries in the Southeast Asian region, including Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore have applied draconian measures in dealing with drug dealers.