The police dog has succeeded in uncovering the existence of methamphetamine or sabu-sabu (crystal meth) disguised in 106 containers of Chinese tea in the fuel tank area.

Jagdterriers are well recognized for their high capability to explore and hunt. Joany has a high ability to sniff drugs as evidenced by her performance when involved in a joint sea patrol operation carried out by the Directorate of Narcotics Interdiction, the Batam Customs Office’s Operation Facility Base (PSO), Tanjung Balai Karimun Customs Office PSO, the National Narcotics Agency (BNN RI) and BNN Riau Island Province.

Frit Alexander, best known as Xander, Joany’s pawang (handler), revealed that the K-9 Team received information and was commanded to joint a sea patrol in order to seek a targeted ship.

On the morning of July 13, Xander was playing with Joany when he was asked by the Batam Customs Office Action Team to stand by to join a sea patrol dog program in response to information about a drug smuggling attempt by landing craft transport (LCT) type ship that the team received from BNN RI.

Sea patrols dog, the Customs Office’s K-9 Unit’s special program as part of WCO RDTC A-P (Word Customs Organization Regional Dog Training Center Asia Pacific), aimed to groom police dogs for sea patrols in efforts to combat drug smuggling to Indonesia through sea routes.

Under the sea patrol dog program, the K-9 team was led by Brian Rinaldi with team members Parosi Situmorang, Xander as the Joany’s handler and Dirgahayu “Dirga” Karo Sekali as the handler of another police dog, Ramber.

“The K-9 team and I stand by to receive further direction for the sea patrol,” Brian said.

When midday came, the joint team was informed that an LCT type ship named Legend Aquarius was suspected of carrying drugs in Pongkar waters, Karimun Regency, Riau Islands.

At almost midnight, the joint team, including the K-9 Team from the Batam Customs Office, met the targeted ship. The ship was led to Sekupang Makmur Abadi Batam Port for further inspection.

The highly cold temperature in Pongkar waters did not deter the joint team from conducting sweeping and tracking in the entire ship area. Joany and Ramber, the K-9 police dogs on duty, displayed their attention and then gave responses when sniffing drugs. When the patrol was in progress, Joany sniffed something in one of the oil tanks,” Brian said.

Upon inspection, the joint team found 106 wraps of sabu-sabu (crystal meth), about 106 kilograms packaged in to look like Chinese tea and hidden in a fake compartment in the fuel tank.

Narcotics Interdiction Director R. Syarif Hidayat revealed that the Batam Customs Office K-9 Team with its police dogs Joany and Ramber had managed to carry out the sea patrol dog well, as evidenced by their good tracking performance in the ship and their capability to sniff and find out where the drugs were hidden in the ship.

Joany and Ramber received the sea patrol dog specialization upon joining the hunting dog research and training program in 2023. The goal of the program is to equip the dogs with a new skill, namely an ability to survive on the ship for several days and to conduct tracking when intercepting a targeted ship in the middle of the sea.

Joany and Ramber were selected to join the program because, apart from having a reliable character, they are small, which makes it easier to move them from one ship to another.

“Joany and Ramber have showcased satisfactory performance in the dog sea patrol. Despite that, we hope that we can continue to scale up the performance of police dogs in detecting drugs through a range of programs and initiatives,” Syarif said.

Syarif explained that several programs and initiatives had been designed, and some were already progress, including to optimize the role of police dogs in detecting drugs in a program called “Container Examination Dog”, which trains dogs to detect drugs in the human body, establishing a personal partnership between human beings and animals for pawang (handlers) and their dogs and developing health and training facilities for police dogs.

“The Batam Customs Office K-9 Team took part in the joint operation as a form of our strong commitment to protecting the people from the danger of drug trafficking, aligned with the Customs Office’s tasks and duties as a community protector,” Syarif concluded.

This article is published in collaboration with Finance Ministry