Two nabbed for drug possession

JAKARTA (JP): Police have arrested two men, one of whom claimed to be a relative of former president Soeharto, for being in possession of 1.5 grams of heroin, an officer said on Saturday.

Jakarta Police detective chief of the narcotics division, Supt. Abdullah, identified the two as Aryo, 21, and Salim, 30.

The heroin was contained in seven small packages, he added.

The police first apprehended Salim with a small package of heroin in his pocket during a raid on Friday evening, he said.

Based on Salim's explanation that he had obtained the drugs from a man called Aryo, the police then managed to arrest the latter at his house in Pasar Minggu, South Jakarta, on the same day.

During questioning, Aryo told the police that he is a relative of the late Tien Soeharto, wife of former president Soeharto.

Unlike in the years when Soeharto was still in power and the police would have been too intimidated to arrest any of his relatives, the police this time merely listened to Aryo and then placed him in Jakarta Police detention.

This is the second drug possession case which allegedly involves members of the Soeharto family since he left office in 1998.

Late last month, West Jakarta Police detectives arrested his grand daughter-in-law, Gusti Maya Firanti Noor, 25, wife of Ari Sigit.

She was taken into custody at the Olympia Hotel, which is located in the popular Lokasari entertainment complex in West Jakarta, following a report made to the police by a local security guard after she used a Rp 50,000 counterfeit note to buy a prepaid cellular phone voucher.

The police searched her and her Mercedes Benz "new eyes" car and found 1.5 grams of shabu-shabu (crystal methamphetamine) kept in a small plastic bag, and some drug paraphernalia. (06)