T

he police faced tough resistance while raiding drug suspects at locations in East Jakarta on Monday and North Jakarta on Tuesday.

A police officer was killed and two others were injured during the operations.

Jakarta Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Mohammad Iqbal said officers Brig. Patrik and chief Brig. Taufik from the Central Jakarta police precinct, along with two informants, were forced to jump into the river behind the house where the drug dealers resided in Berlan, East Jakarta, on Monday.

The officers were attacked by a pack of thugs armed with machetes when they attempted to arrest the drug suspects at the location.

'€œThey attacked the four with machetes. Finding themselves cornered, the officers and the informants jumped into the Ciliwung River,'€ he said.

Iqbal said that First Insp. Hariadi Prabowo, who led the raid, was also attacked by people outside the house.

Taufik passed away after sustaining severe injuries and his body was found floating in the river around Gambir in Central Jakarta on Tuesday afternoon. Patrik suffered gashes to his body, but he survived
the attack.

Jakarta Police general crimes detective chief Sr. Comr. Krishna Murti said the two informants had managed to escape and were found alive.

Krishna said the officers were about to arrest the wanted drug suspects at the house when one of suspects suddenly started screaming. The scream apparently triggered a gang of people from outside of the house to rush in and attack the officers.

When asked whether or not the people who had attacked the officers were local residents, Krishna replied that, '€œthey were not local residents but people who seemed [to have been put on standby] to protect the suspect.'€

He said the scream might have been a sign already agreed to beforehand between the criminal elements to act as a call for back-up.

'€œ[Using a sign] is their modus operandi. They will gang up on [officers] if they are raided,'€ he said, adding that the area where the officers were attacked was a drug-riddled part of the city.

Berlan is notorious for brawls between residents and neighbors. The clashes, which have taken place since the 1950s, often involve the hurling of stones and Molotov cocktails. Residents are also known to shoot at each other with arrows and air rifles.

East Jakarta police precinct spokeswoman Comr. Husaimah, whose force was involved in the investigation of the case, said they had arrested six suspects and were hunting 12 others. She could not, however, specify the role that each of the suspects had played, kompas.com reported.

In a separate case on Tuesday, two police officers from the West Jakarta police precinct were shot by a drug suspect, later identified as Ical, when they tried to arrest him at a house on Jl. Bugis, Tanjung Priok, North Jakarta.

Iqbal said First Insp. Supriyatin was shot in his right hand while chief Brig. Aris Dinata was shot in his right chest, adding that the two were currently undergoing surgery at Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital in Central Jakarta.

'€œWhen the two officers entered the house, a person suddenly shot them from inside the house,'€ he said.

Ical is currently being detained at the North Jakarta Police precinct.

The Jakarta Police revealed that rampant drug dealing in the city had concentrated in Kampung Ambon, West Jakarta, Kampung Bahari, North Jakarta and in Tanah Tinggi, Central Jakarta.

Jakarta Police drug crimes subdirectorate head Adj. Sr. Comr Gembong Yudha estimated that drug dealing in those three areas reached Rp 1.3 billion (US$94,000) every week, mostly for crystal methamphetamine, Antara news agency reported.
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