Special task forces set up to fight drug trafficking
Special task forces set up to fight drug trafficking
Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The National Police and the National Narcotics Agency (BNN) set
up a special task force on Thursday to fight the prison drug
trade.
The task force -- comprising police officers, BNN officials
and prisons guards -- will eventually work in 2,400 prisons
across the country, following a pilot project at the Cipinang,
Salemba and Tangerang penitentiaries.
These three prisons are thought to be among the worst in terms
of drug trafficking. Several inmates at the prisons have
controlled their drug businesses from behind bars, allegedly with
the assistance of guards.
Tangerang Police arrested 11 inmates in July and charged them
with operating drug rings via mobile phones.
Tangerang Penitentiary warden Jejen Zaenal HD acknowledged
that some guards could be working with prisoners in the drug
trade, adding that two guards had been dismissed for their
alleged involvement in the drug business.
National Police chief Gen. Da'i Bachtiar also acknowledged
that drugs were being bought and sold in the country's prisons.
"That is why we are deploying an (interdepartmental) task
force to put an end to the practice," he said.
The task force, he said, would report to the police "should
they find something not right in the prisons".
Two other task forces were also set up on Thursday, one to
prevent drugs from being smuggled into the country through ports
and the other to monitor the trade of chemicals that could be
used to manufacture illegal drugs.
Da'i said ports must be closely monitored to prevent illegal
drugs from being smuggled into Indonesia, whose geography makes
it a haven for smugglers.
"The task force will serve major seaports and traditional
ones," Da'i said.
The authorities also must be vigilant in monitoring the trade
in chemicals that can be used to manufacture drugs, Da'i said.
"We must prevent the illegal distribution of chemicals because
we do not want criminals to produce or create new kinds of
drugs," he said.
Da'i said drugs remained a major problem in Indonesia. The
officer said the number of drug dealing cases was increasing by
about 1.3 percent a year, with some 34,000 cases in 2001 and
37,000 cases in 2002.