T

he Bukit Barisan Regional Military Command (Kodam) on Thursday deployed 105 military personnel to raid a residential complex in Medan that has allegedly become a center of narcotics trade in the North Sumatra provincial capital.

The Kampung Kodam neighborhood in Medan Sunggal district has long been suspected as a haven for narcotics users and dealers.

The police rarely touch the location allegedly over concerns that it has been predominantly occupied by retired military personnel and their families.

Kodam spokesperson Col. Enoh Solehuddin said his personnel had arrested a suspected drug dealer and confiscated a package of marijuana and four ecstasy pills during Thursday'€™s operation.

Other evidence seized, Enoh said, included a set of electronic scales, a bong for crystal methamphetamine, a firearm and police uniform comprising four pairs of trousers and six shirts.

'€œDrug dealers deliberately use Kampung Kodam as a place to conduct illegal transactions, thinking that the place is safe as the police do not have the guts to enter the area,'€ Enoh told The Jakarta Post.

Enoh said most residents of the complex were retired soldiers who actually no longer had the right to live there. Enoh said his institution had repeatedly called on the families of the retired soldiers to move but they had refused to do so.

Enoh also said that inhabitants of the complex always fought back every time a raid was conducted there.

'€œWe are suspecting that the area has been infiltrated by drug syndicates,'€ he said.

Separately, Kodam'€™s mass media affairs division head, Capt. Yamin Sohar, said his institution had handed over the suspected drug dealer arrested during the raid, identified as Indra, to the local police.

'€œWe arrested the man for allegedly possessing some drugs and a crystal meth inhaling device,'€ said Yamin, adding that a woman suspected to be a member of a drug syndicate had escaped the raid.

Medan, the country'€™s third-largest city, is home to more than two million people.

In an attempt to curb illegal drug distribution in the city, the Medan Police said last month that they would carry out an intensive operation to end the narcotics trade in Kampung Kubur, another notorious drug haven in the city.

Located in Petisah Tengah subdistrict in downtown Medan, Kampung Kubur has long been a hot spot for narcotics and drug dealing.

Although law enforcers have previously arrested hundreds of alleged drug dealers and confiscated evidence including crystal meth, heroin, marijuana and gambling equipment in countless raids over the past several years, the drug trade has not stopped in the area, which is comprised of scores of narrow alleys.