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.