"We suspected that this was the main source [of the drug operation]," BNN chief Comr. Gen. Budi Waseso said. "All the branches were controlled from here, including Semarang and Sukoharjo."

The Surakarta factory produced up to 50,000 pills a day, he added, and earned up to Rp 2.7 billion (US$200,000) in revenue.

Budi said that, through a special task force formed by the agency to investigate the PCC case, several other factories in Central Java were identified.

"We will uncover the whole network: the financiers, the leaders and the people who were behind them," he said.

Meanwhile, the agency confiscated Monday 13 million pills from a factory in Semarang, Central Java, suspected to have sent supplies used for the pills to Kalimantan and Sulawesi.

Two suspects in the case were named, namely Jhoni, a 38-year-old Semarang resident, and Ronggo, a 52-year-old from Tasikmalaya.

A day earlier, the BNN raided a house that was allegedly used for PCC manufacturing in Surakarta and two houses in nearby Sukoharjo. Seven people were detained, including the owner of the Surakarta house.

Sixty-six teenagers were hospitalized after ingesting PCC pills in Kendari, Southwest Sulawesi, in September. The pills reportedly caused them to act differently before they fell unconscious. (kmt/rin)

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