A suspected drug dealer who was known to police as a dangerous recidivist was shot dead in Tangerang, Banten early Monday morning after attacking police officers with a machete.

Tangerang Police chief Sr. Comr. Harry Kurniawan said the officers were at the suspect's residence in Karawaci, in order to arrest him.

“The suspect resisted arrest, so our officers had to [shoot him],” Harry said on Monday as reported by tempo.co.

The police also confiscated a kilogram of heroin and 103 ecstasy pills from the suspect's residence.

Harry said that the man, whose identity was not disclosed, was a suspected international drug dealer who also distributed heroin in Greater Jakarta.

“He was a [known] recidivist,” he said, adding that the suspect was a former inmate of the maximum-security Nusa Kambangan prison in Cilacap, Central Java.

Harry said the police had followed a lead generated from the Apr. 14 arrest of a pregnant woman for possession of 98 ecstasy pills. Tangerang Police also gathered other evidence from the woman's South Tangerang residence, including ecstasy powder, two mobile phones, two bongs, a pack of cigarettes and a weighing scale.

“The woman’s arrest led [to other arrests]," said Harry, including the arrest of four other drug suspects in South Tangerang.

The suspects are being charged under Law No. 35/2009 on narcotics, which carries a maximum sentence of death or life imprisonment. (ami)