South Kalimantan Police Seize 172.4 kg of Meth in Two-Month Operation

Banjarbaru (ANTARA) - The Narcotics Detective Directorate of the South Kalimantan Regional Police seized 172.4 kilograms of crystal methamphetamine and 556 ecstasy pills over the two-month period from 24 May to 21 July 2026.

“The evidence seized from operations over the past two months has today been destroyed,” said the Chief of the South Kalimantan Regional Police, Inspector General Rosyanto Yudha Hermawan, in Banjarbaru on Tuesday.

The evidence was gathered from the arrest of 39 suspects, comprising 35 men and four women.

The police chief said that the seizure of narcotics that failed to reach the streets saved at least 86,303 people… corrected: at least 863,033 people from abuse of the illegal substances.

It also prevented expenditure by the state and the public of some Rp4.3 trillion on rehabilitation costs for addicts.

“We have also cut off the flow of money from the black market generated by this drug circulation, estimated at Rp311 billion,” he revealed.

Yudha stressed that the destruction of the narcotics evidence was carried out in accordance with the law, as a demonstration of transparency and accountability in the investigation of cases led by the Director of Narcotics Crime of the South Kalimantan Regional Police, Police Grand Commissioner Baktiar Joko Mujiono.

“The National Police are showing the public that this narcotics evidence has been destroyed through an open process, guaranteeing that it will not return to circulation or be misused,” he said.

At the same event, the Governor of South Kalimantan, Muhidin, said the South Kalimantan Regional Police’s success in combating drug circulation deserved a thumbs-up, given the size of the evidence seizures uncovered over time.

“This proves our police have worked hard; let us continue to support them by providing information, however small, if we become aware of indications of drug circulation or abuse,” he said.

“Evidence of this size must surely be controlled by large networks with significant power, but the South Kalimantan Regional Police are no less formidable and have always succeeded in exposing them,” he said.

Also present at the destruction ceremony was a member of Commission III of the House of Representatives, Habib Aboe Bakar Alhabsyi, who stressed that the uncovering of cases and destruction of evidence was not mere routine law enforcement, but concrete proof of the authorities’ seriousness in combating narcotics circulation.

“The Narcotics Directorate of the South Kalimantan Regional Police has demonstrated its hard work in dismantling drug trafficking networks; this is an achievement worthy of appreciation,” he said.