T

he North Sumatra Police have intensified surveillance in the waters off Tanjungbalai municipality and Asahan regency, the area having become a popular route for smugglers to bring in contraband such as narcotics and used clothing from Malaysia.

Tanjungbalai Police chief Adj. Sr. Com. Ayep Wahyu Gunawan said the neighboring regions, located
on Sumatra'€™s eastern coast, had become the main entrances for illegal goods, partly due to their proximity to Malaysia.

'€œIt takes smugglers only four hours to reach Tanjung Balai from Malaysia,'€ Ayeb told The Jakarta Post recently.

Smugglers, he said, used many jetties and minor ports in the area to load and unload their illegal cargo. Such activities were usually carried out at night-time to escape detention by authorities, he added.

'€œAt the moment, we rely on tip-offs from local informants to bust smuggling operations in the areas. They inform us of the smuggling location and the identities of those involved in the illegal operation,'€ he said.

Last week, an Indonesian Navy patrol boat intercepted a boat carrying 300 packages of used clothing from Malaysia off Tanjungbalai. The raid, however, met resistance from the ship'€™s crew, triggering a shoot-out that led to the death of one of the crew.

Belawan Naval Base commander First Adm. Yudo Margono said the incident had begun when four Navy patrol personnel stopped an incoming ship from Malaysia carrying second-hand clothes, which legally may not be imported to Indonesia. The Navy patrol ship was attacked with Molotov cocktails thrown by dozens of people allegedly hired to protect the shipment.

Meanwhile on Monday, personnel from the Asahan Police'€™s narcotics unit foiled an attempt to smuggle 5 kilograms of crystal methamphetamine from Malaysia.

'€œWe arrested three suspects, including one crew member who was exploited by a drug trafficker to take the drugs from Malaysia to North Sumatra,'€ Asahan Police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Tatan Dirsan Atmaja told reporters on Wednesday.

Tatan said the drugs had been transferred at sea by one of the suspects from one boat to another to avoid detection.

'€œOur informant told us that the smugglers'€™ boat had berthed at a local jetty. We went immediately to the spot, and arrested the suspect with evidence in the form of 5 kg of crystal meth,'€ he said.

Tatan added that after questioning the suspect, police had arrested the latter'€™s accomplices, identified as AR and AT, with all three claiming to be couriers.

'€œThey were paid by a drug trafficker between Rp 10 million [US$726] and Rp 20 million for a kilogram of crystal meth they brought to land,'€ he said.

The National Narcotics Agency (BNN) has estimated that there are more than 5 million drug users Indonesia, making it the biggest market for narcotics in Asia.

In June last year, the Stabat District Court in Langkat regency, North Sumatra, handed down a death sentence to 22-year-old Muhammad Mufaddam for carrying 4.2 kg of crystal meth.

Mufaddam had been arrested several months previously, when the car he was traveling in was stopped by police in Besitang. The court said the defendant was part of an international drug syndicate, having been in cahoots with a Malaysian named Rizal.