TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Five arrested for `drug smuggling'
The Bali Police have detained five suspects in separate locations for allegedly using and distributing illegal drugs
Change Size
The Bali Police have detained five suspects in separate locations for allegedly using and distributing illegal drugs.
Two suspects are foreigners.
The police apprehended 39-year-old Paul Michel Jacques Lootvoet from Belgium in a house on Jl. Pantai Brawa in North Kuta on Tuesday, for possessing 3.2 grams of hash.
The suspect admitted he bought the drug for Rp 900,000 (US$90) from a French national identified as Garcia Jean Marc Patrice, who was arrested later that day in his residence on Jl. Gunung Lumut, West Denpasar.
"Both suspects are allegedly drug users. They could face a maximum 12 years in jail," Sr. Comr. Mulyadi, Bali Police drug crime division director, told the press Thursday.
From Garcia, the police also confiscated 0.3 grams of hashish wrapped in aluminum foil and 0.8 grams of cocaine, as well as drug-making equipment. On Wednesday, the police arrested three local people in a similar case.
Miftah Farid Artawan was arrested for possessing and allegedly distributing ecstasy. The 20-year-old man was arrested with 879 ecstasy pills.
Another two suspects, who were arrested separately, were Munawir and I Wayan Suamba. The police have yet to find evidence to prove that the three are from the same syndicate.
The police said Miftah was allegedly a major drug distributor in Bali. "He brought at least 1,000 pills of ecstasy for distribution," the police spokesman Sr. Comr. I Gde Sugianyar Dwi Putra said.
Miftah said he was only a courier and was paid Rp 5,000 per pill sold. However, the police doubted the suspect was only paid Rp 5,000, considering that each pill could cost up to Rp 200,000.
"I hand over the drugs upon a phone order from my boss. Then I transfer the money," Miftah said.
He said he distributed the packages by attaching them to trees or other designated spots. The suspect also admitted he had the drugs in Bondowoso, East Java, and took it with his motorcycle to Denpasar.
The police said they noticed an increasing trend of transporting drugs using land and sea transportation.
"The suspects usually hide the drugs in trucks, making it difficult to detect," Mulyadi said, adding that supervision of land and seaports should be beefed up as it was at airports. He said there were at least 357 drug cases as of mid this year, mostly crystal methamphetamine, cannabis, ecstasy and heroin. "Most drug users take them at nightclubs," he added.
