Two alleged drug makers nabbed

Two alleged drug makers nabbed

JAKARTA (JP): Police arrested two men in Kelapa Gading, North
Jakarta, over the weekend for alleged involvement in the
production of barbiturate-type Nipam pills.

City Police Spokesman Lt. Col. E. Aritonang said Saturday the
police also confiscated 15 large sacks of powder believed to be
the main ingredient used to produce Nipam.

"The powder, weighing around 900 kilograms in total, could be
used to make up to six million Nipam pills," Aritonang said.

The seized evidence could be considered the police's biggest
drug haul, especially involving Nipam pills, since the campaign
against drugs was launched in March, when 2.05 million Nipam
pills were seized and 21 people arrested in Taman Kota housing
estate in West Jakarta.

Aritonang said that during the weekend raid, the police also
seized several machines to produce the pills by the two men,
identified as EM, 32, and KS, 37.

The police are still questioning the two men to obtain
detailed information on their operations and their possible
accomplices.

Both men are being held at the city police detention house.

Aritonang said that both EM and KS were believed to have
strong links with an alleged major drug dealer who was arrested
Thursday.

The alleged dealer, Peter Safri Wijono, 36, was arrested for
illegally having 3.75 million pills of various types of drugs,
including Nipam, Rohypnol, BK and Dumolid.

Peter was one of the police's most wanted alleged drug
distributors.

He was arrested in his house, also located in Kelapa Gading.
Aritonang refused to say whether Peter's house was located near
the house in which EM and KS were arrested.

He said the new ratified 1997 Psychotropic Law Number 5
imposed heavier punishment on anybody found guilty of being
involved in drugs, either as user, distributor, trader or
producer.

He said Peter had violated Article 60 of the 1997 Psychotropic
Law on illegal production, distribution and sale of drugs.

"If found guilty, he could face a maximum 15-year imprisonment
and a fine of Rp 200 million (US$76,293)," he said.

EM and KS, as alleged drug producers, could also be charged
under the same article, he said.

The government banned the production, distribution and sale of
Nipam, except for medical purposes, in the early 1980s.

However, Nipam pills, as well as other cheap drugs like
Rohypnol, BK and Dumolid, can easily be found at many roadside
medicine shops in Senen and Tanah Abang markets in Central
Jakarta and Blok A market in South Jakarta for around Rp 2,500
(US$1) for a strip of 10.

Police said that the drugs' affordable prices had made them
very popular, especially among students and lower-class drug
users.

Police also said that student brawls and other crimes had been
related to Nipam, as it stimulated a user's feeling of being
dauntless. Someone under the influence of Nipam could also become
violent.

The guilty parties of two high-profile crimes last year had
taken Nipam: an intercity Kramatdjati bus driver who was
convicted for reckless driving which led to the deaths of 31
people, mostly his passengers, in March; and a man who raped a
female patient at Pelni hospital in December. (cst)