Week-long antidrug drive sees 88 arrests
Week-long antidrug drive sees 88 arrests
Abdul Khalik, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Eighty-eight suspected drug traffickers and users have been
arrested while 4,377 ecstasy pills, 38.5 grams of shabu-shabu
(crystal methampethamine) and 10 grams of marijuana have been
confiscated during a three-week drug operation in the capital.
Jakarta Police drug squad chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Sugeng I.R.
said on Thursday that police had nabbed 66 suspects at several
houses and apartments in Greater Jakarta and 22 others in several
nightclubs and discotheques across the city.
"We realize that drug dealers and trafficking keep on
increasing in the capital, so we continue to conduct drug
operations. This is a result of our operations. We hope we can
curb drug circulation in the capital with these drives," he said.
According to data from the Jakarta Police, the number of drug
cases in the capital has increased by 2.4 percent to 3,636 cases
this year from 3,541 last year.
Aside from operations conducted by the Jakarta Police
Headquarters, several police precincts have also made major
arrests of several drug suspects.
Police arrested a big-time drug trafficker, identified as
Rangga Adiriansyah, 39, alias Agus Salim in Tamansari, West
Jakarta on Wednesday and confiscated 3,000 ecstasy pills.
Police said that they were still investigating other syndicate
members through information obtained while interrogating Agus.
East Jakarta Police arrested Rico Supahelut, 23, and
confiscated 240 ecstasy pills from his car last Friday.
Later, Rico admitted that the pills were sent to him by a big-
time drug boss at Cipinang penitentiary.
Police are still trying to identify the dealer.
Sugeng said that the operations were not only aimed at
arresting traffickers or users but also at cracking down on drug
factories and producers in Greater Jakarta.
"We will continue to search for the source of ecstasy pills as
there are indications that besides imported pills, the pills are
also produced here in Indonesia. Big bosses here even export
pills abroad," he said.
Police announced earlier that they had uncovered and closed
down the country's largest ecstasy factory in Serang in Banten
and arrested 13 people, including foreign nationals from France,
the Netherlands and China.
The factory -- the third largest drug factory in the world --
had an installed capacity to produce one million ecstasy tablets
a week worth some Rp 100 billion (US$9.8 million), with most of
the pills exported to Hong Kong, Taiwan and Australia.