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.
Police seize two tons of marijuana in raids
Big catch: A police officer guards on Monday packages of marijuana that the force recently confiscated in a raid
Change Size
Big catch: A police officer guards on Monday packages of marijuana that the force recently confiscated in a raid. JP/Awo
The National Police have confiscated more than two tons of marijuana from a drug syndicate operating interprovincially in a series of raids in Jakarta in what the police are calling the biggest seizure of the year.
'We have seized 2.1 tons of marijuana,' the head of National Police's detective division, Comr. Gen. Budi Waseso, told reporters in a press briefing in a yard scattered with boxes of the seized marijuana in front of the police headquarters in South Jakarta.
The police said the marijuana originated from Aceh and had been shipped to Jakarta through Medan, North Sumatra; Palembang, South Sumatra; Lampung and Banten.
The activities of the syndicate were being tracked before the police carried out a raid in Gelam Bay, South Sumatra, on April 10, during which the police arrested two suspects and confiscated 540 kilograms of marijuana.
The police were able to develop their investigation by questioning the two suspects. On April 13, the police apprehended another suspect in Sawah Besar, Central Jakarta, and seized 10 kilograms of dried marijuana.
A third raid was conducted on April 25 in Sukmajaya, Depok, West Java, during which four people were arrested and 166 kilograms of marijuana, as well as a car used to transport the goods, were seized.
The police concluded the series of raids on the syndicate on May 1, when it raided a truck passing through the Slipi toll road in West Jakarta carrying 1.4 tons of dried marijuana. Two people were arrested in the raid.
'We apprehended nine members of the syndicate along with three cars,' Budi said, adding that the seized marijuana was worth Rp 6.3 billion (US$482,478). 'This much marijuana can be used by 21 million people. So, we have saved 21 million Indonesian lives,' he added.
Budi said the modus operandi used by the syndicate was different from a previously raided syndicate.
'We found the marijuana loaded in trucks and covered with rotten fruit and vegetables to neutralize the smell,' Budi said.
The nine members are now being investigated by the police. Budi said the maximum penalty the syndicate members could face was the death penalty, although a press release said that the maximum penalty was life in prison.
The police say that the raid is part of their commitment to freeing the country from narcotics and drugs. They said similar raids would be carried out in the future as well as efforts to trace marijuana farms in Aceh.
The government has declared a war on drugs. Last month it executed eight drug convicts comprising seven foreign nationals and one Indonesian.
Zainal Abidin, the only Indonesian citizen in the group, was found guilty of possessing and distributing marijuana. He was arrested in his house in Palembang, South Sumatra, where police seized 58.7 kilograms of marijuana in December 2000.
In August 2001, the Palembang District Court sentenced him to 18 years in prison. He then appealed for a lighter sentence through the Palembang High Court in September 2001, but instead received the death penalty.
In May 2005, Zainal appealed to the Supreme Court but his plea was rejected. He then sought clemency from President Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo in December 2014 but again it was rejected. He filed a second appeal with the Supreme Court that was rejected on April 25 this year before facing the firing squad on April 29.(saf)
