Police arrest 13 in massive drug-ring raids

Unhappy Seven: The Jakarta police put on display on Thursday suspects and illegal drugs seized during raids over the past week against an international drug smuggling ring in the capital. JP/Wendra AjistyatamaThe Jakarta Police said on Thursday that they had arrested 13 suspects in several raids over the last week against an international drug-smuggling ring, spanning from the Netherlands to Japan.

Narcotics impounded in the raids comprised of 55 kilograms of crystal methamphetamine, allegedly from Iran; 50,000 ecstasy pills from the Netherlands; and 30,000 happy five pills from China and Japan. The confiscated illegal drugs are worth a total of Rp 128 billion (US$14.34 million). “Five of the suspects are drug convicts serving time in penitentiaries: four in Salemba and the other one in Tangerang,” narcotics police chief Sr. Comr. Nugroho Aji said.

The convicts in Salemba have been identified as: UC, RB, AN, and JO, while the one in Tangerang is HR.

These five suspects were the financiers and ringleaders, while the other eight were just couriers, Nugroho said. Three of the couriers, identified as AZL, AD, and APN, are Malaysians.

All suspects have been charged under the 2009 Narcotics Law for illegal drug transactions and may face life imprisonment or the death penalty if proven guilty.

Nugroho said that police were still hunting for another member of the ring, a Malaysian with the initials NN. The police have requested assistance from the National Police narcotics directorate and Interpol in the hunt.

According to Nugroho, the drugs were smuggled via Johor, Malaysia, from where they were brought into Aceh aboard wooden boats. They were then transported overland to Jakarta.

The drugs were then to be distributed throughout Indonesia, primarily to large cities, such as Bandung, Surabaya and Denpasar, with Jakarta serving as the nationwide distribution hub.

“Newly recruited and easily manipulated couriers, called cells in the drug ring, would then distribute the drugs among nightclubs,” Nugroho said.

According to him, the first arrest was of a suspect named DN in front of a hotel in Mangga Dua, Central Jakarta, on Jan. 26.