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second drug syndicate comprising family members has been discovered by police in South Sumatra. In both cases, the operations were led by family members behind bars.

The first syndicate was discovered in August, leading to the arrests of ID, 28, and NB, 20. They reportedly worked at the direction of their father, HR, who is serving time at the Mata Merah correctional facility in
Palembang.

The newly uncovered syndicate reportedly comprised FR, 31, of Muara Enim regency, his mother-in-law EN and EN’s husband, ER, who allegedly led the group from Serong correctional facility, Palembang. FR is a former police officer who was dismissed because of his involvement in drug dealing.

The police uncovered the Serong syndicate following reports of an alleged drug deal at the Alang-Alang Lebar gas station in Palembang, last Thursday. The police deployed a team to the location and found three people conducting the transaction. One of them received a yellow package.

South Sumatra Police chief Insp. Gen. Zulkarnain Adinegara said his officers subsequently arrested the three, identified as FR, MDK, 41, of Muara Enim and BMB, 31, of Musi Banyuasin.

From the three people, the police seized a milk carton containing 2 kilograms of sabu-sabu (crystal methamphetamine) and five packages containing 500 ecstasy pills.

“BMB received the packages that apparently belonged to EN, FR’s mother-in-law,” Zulkarnain said at the South Sumatra police headquarters in Palembang on Monday.

EN was arrested on Saturday at around 5 p.m. local time on Jl. Anggrek Talang Petani, Prabumulih. EN admitted she had hid more sabu-sabu under an electricity pole near her house in Modong subdistrict, Muara Enim.

The police followed up the confession and found a white sack containing three packages of sabu-sabu weighing 3 kg and four candy jars containing 26 packages of sabu-sabu weighing 2.6 kg.

“This is a family syndicate. They communicated using mobile phones and were led by [a family member] in prison,” Zulkarnain said.

To the police, EN confessed that she communicated with husband, ER, when visiting him in prison or using mobile phones. She also said she had ordered the sabu-sabu as per the direction of her husband and got the contact of a person who had sabu-sabu in Pekanbaru, Riau, from one of ER’s fellow inmates.

“I made the deal with the person in Pekanbaru by phone. He is an inmate at the Riau correctional facility,” she said.

Following the arrests, Zulkarnain said his team would conduct an investigation at the correctional facilities in Serong and Pekanbaru to trace the source of the sabu-sabu.

He said the police suspected the sabu-sabu was sourced from a bigger syndicate in Myanmar.

The Customs and Excise Directorate General recently revealed that a new shift had occurred in the transnational drug trade, with drugs now entering Indonesia from Myanmar via the Strait of Malacca, which separates Indonesia and Malaysia.