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Hundreds of thousands of PCC pills seized in Purwokerto factory raid
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People gather in front of a shophouse and suspected drug factory for PCC pills on Jl. Raya Baturraden in North Purwokerto district, Banyumas regency, Central Java, on Tuesday. (JP/Agus Maryono)
T
he National Police’s Criminal Investigation Department (Bareskrim) raided a factory suspected to produce pills containing a combination of paracetamol, carisoprodol and caffeine (PCC) in North Purwokerto district, Banyumas regency, Central Java, on Tuesday.
The team of investigators seized hundreds of thousands of pills, drug-making machines, raw materials and dozens of bags of the PCC pills.
The raid follows an incident in Kendari, Southeast Sulawesi, last week in which 66 teenagers were hospitalized after being intoxicated by the pills, which reportedly caused them to act differently before they fell unconscious.
“We have seized evidence straight from the factory. We will develop [the investigation] to determine the suspect,” deputy director of the agency's drug unit, Sr. Comr. John Turman Panjaitan, said on Tuesday.
Local people who swarmed the suspected factory, located in a shophouse on the main road, expressed shock that the shophouse in their neighborhood was the target of a police operation.
“I never thought that the shophouse was used as a drug factory,” local resident Aris, 35, told The Jakarta Post, adding that the shophouse was located on a busy road near the famous Baturraden tourist spot.
In a separate raid, the police raided early morning on Tuesday a warehouse in Surabaya where 1.2 million pills were allegedly stored.
The Food and Drug Monitoring Agency (BPOM) said on Monday that similar drugs were distributed illegally and on a massive scale in many parts of the country. (rin)
