U.S. pays Indonesian police after drug bust

Eva C. Komandjaja, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Visiting U.S. Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales handed over a check worth US$287,577 to National Police Chief Gen. Sutanto on Wednesday as part of an agreement to share proceeds from drug busts.

Gonzales lauded Sutanto's efforts in fighting terrorism as well as the successful recent crackdown on the world's third largest drug factory, which was raided in Serang, Banten.

The proceeds were obtained from a crackdown against an international narcotics smuggling ring conducted jointly by the National Police and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in 1997, which led to the conviction of two Americans.

This is the first implementation of the asset-sharing agreement.

Under U.S. law, when funds are forfeited by the U.S. Department of Justice, the forfeited proceeds may be shared with another country in recognition of its assistance in the case. The check represented 80 percent of the total proceeds forfeited in the 1997 raid.

The funds will be used by the National Police to develop an information system for an anti-drug unit here.

"The money will be used to finance the development of the Joint Agencies Counter Drug Operation Center (Jacdoc) information system. Hopefully, this system will increase the police's capability in cracking drug cases in the future," Sutanto said.

He said he hoped that the police would be able to crack down on other drug syndicates like the one using the factory in Serang. The factory contained around 62.4 tons of precursor chemicals for producing crystal methamphetamine, locally referred to as shabu-shabu and 6.2 tons of precursor chemicals for making ecstasy, as well as thousands of ecstasy pills and hundreds of kilograms of methamphetamines ready for delivery to Hong Kong.

The police so far have arrested 15 suspects in the case, including foreign nationals from France, the Netherlands and China.

Deputy head of the narcotics division at the National Police Headquarters Sr. Comr. Indardi Tanos said that he believed that the people arrested were part of a larger international drug ring.

Indardi said that one of the Indonesians arrested, Benny Sudradjat, was believed to be running the factory as a member of an international syndicate. According to Indardi, Benny confessed that there was a non-Indonesian who funded the ecstasy plant.

"Right now we're starting our investigation by tracking down where exactly the machines, used to make pills, were produced and who bought them," Indardi said, adding that he only knew the machines were produced in Taiwan.

Indardi said they hoped to get more information about the case after a reenactment of how the entire operation worked, which will take place on Thursday at the factory site in Banten.