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Ex-West Sumatra police chief gets life in prison for selling meth, dodges death sentence
Prosecutors had wanted Teddy Minahasa executed for ordering a subordinate to sell confiscated crystal methamphetamine but judges sentenced him to life in prison.
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Former West Sumatra police chief Teddy Minahasa Putra (left) attends a court hearing in Jakarta on May 9, 2023. (Antara/Aprillio Akbar)
T
he West Jakarta District Court sentenced former two-star police general Teddy Minahasa to life in prison on Tuesday for his role in a plot to sell illicit drugs seized by the institution that he headed.
The sentence was lighter than the death sentence that prosecutors had sought.
The panel of three judges found Teddy guilty of orchestrating a scheme to steal 5 kilograms of methamphetamine from a store of confiscated drugs at the Bukittinggi Police headquarters in West Sumatra and to sell the supply to dealers in Jakarta in May of last year. At the time, Teddy was the chief of the West Sumatra Police.
The case surfaced in October of last year after lawmakers revealed to the press that Teddy, who was at the time the incoming chief of the East Java Police, had been arrested on charges relating to a drug case. The news came at a time of diminished public trust in the police following a high-profile murder case involving another police general.
The court said on Tuesday that Teddy had instructed his subordinate, mid-ranking officer Dody Prawiranegara, to swap 10 kg of methamphetamine in police storage with alum – a chemical compound that has a similar appearance to the class-1 drug – as part of a plot to sell the confiscated supply on the street.
Dody initially refused, according to the court, but later relented, agreeing to sell only 5 kg of meth. He also enlisted the help of his own assistant, Syamsul Maarif, to replace the stolen drugs with alum.
