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nternational smuggling rings are changing tack and smuggling drugs into Indonesia through the porous sea borders of the archipelago, according to senior narcotics officers.

“[Smugglers] have previously tried several methods, for example, transiting through regular entry points with drugs attached to their bodies or having swallowed them. They have failed, however,” National Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Saud Usman Nasution said on Tuesday.

Now, Nasution said, syndicates were using the “trans-shipment” method, in which international cargo ships stop at secluded areas offshore and transfer drugs to waiting local vessels that are not required to go through customs or immigration inspections.

Most recently, police arrested one alleged smuggler and shot dead three others when intercepting a drug trans-shipment in Ujung Genteng, West Java, on Friday.

Based on information obtained after the arrest, officers arrested five additional men on Monday. The men were allegedly tasked with picking up the drugs — 70 kilograms of crystal methamphetamine — from a villa in Pelabuhan Ratu, Sukabumi, West Java.

The alleged smugglers were identified as Iranian citizens ADM, 41; MA, 27; ACC, 39; HRS, 26; and
a Thai citizen, N.

“We found it difficult to interrogate the suspects because of language problems. They could not speak English, and they claimed not to know each other,” Nasution said.

The suspects were allegedly members of what the police called the Netherlands-Iran syndicate.

The National Police previously asked the Australian Federal Police to help catch smugglers, who can reach Australian waters from Pelabuhan Ratu in about four hours.

“I think [the smugglers] were planning to run to the west, maybe south of the Maldives,” Nasution said.

Separately, the National Police announced on Monday six members of a trans-shipment syndicate
between Malaysia and Batam.

The suspects were identified as SB, 26, a resident of Batam; A, 35, from Wakatobi, North Sulawesi; DI, 29, from East Bintan, Riau Islands; I, 30, from Langkat, North Sumatra; DBR, 33, from Tanjung Duren, West Jakarta; and L, 36, from Penjaringan, North Jakarta.

“The syndicate brought drugs from Malaysia to Batam and then to Jakarta using the ship KM Sirimau,” Nasution said.

Officers confiscated 20 kilograms of crystal meth and 110,000 Ecstasy pills during the arrest.

Insp. Gen. Ahwil Lutan, an expert consultant with the National Narcotics Agency (BNN), said that trans-shipment was not new, but had only recently appeared in Indonesia.

“The international drug syndicates have always adopted new methods based on the neglectfulness of law enforcement officers,” he said.

The drug trade worked on supply and demand, Ahwil said. “As long as the demand is still high, the drugs will keep on coming.”

“We have about 17,000 islands. We can’t control all of them,” he added. (rpt)