Amid rising concerns about drug smugglers'€™ increasingly innovative ways to distribute illicit substances, a lawmaker has called on the National Narcotics Agency (BNN) to become more creative in catching perpetrators.

Regular approaches would not solve the drug problems in the country, as authorities would be outwitted by the drug criminals, Akbar Faisal, a member of House of Representatives' Commission III overseeing legal affairs, said on Thursday.

"In America, drug smugglers already use submarines; the point is they're creative. Therefore, by using a regular approach, we would be two, three steps behind the drug lords," the NasDem Party Politician said at a meeting with the BNN, as quoted by kompas.com.

The agency needed to increase the competence of its human resources and should use unexpected strategies in facing drug smugglers, Akbar added.

Another member of Commission III, Dwi Ria Latifa from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), pointed out that drug smugglers were already employing novel methods in Riau Islands.

One such method would see smugglers send packages of drugs by placing them in plastic bags in the middle of the ocean. The receiver would then fetch the package from the same spot using traditional boats.

Smugglers would use small islands that were not guarded by the police to distribute drugs, she added.

Responding to the issue, BNN chief Comr. Gen. Budi Waseso vowed to be more creative in discovering and dismantling drug distribution networks.

He named plans to build a prison on an island guarded by crocodiles to prevent death row drug convicts from getting out as an example of innovation.

"For drug lords, we cannot apply normal approaches. We must think outside the norm, we need breakthroughs and innovation, because they always get new ideas," Budi said. (liz/rin)(+)

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