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Drug convict sent to ‘super maximum security’ prison for producing ecstasy in hospital
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Thousands of ecstasy pills are laid out for a case exposé after being confiscated in an operation conducted by the National Narcotics Agency (BNN). (Tempo/-)
A
drug convict, identified only as AU, 42, is set to be detained in a “super maximum security” prison after being caught producing ecstasy pills in the VVIP room of a private hospital in Central Jakarta.
Central Jakarta Police chief Sr. Comr. Heru Novianto said AU was an inmate at the Salemba detention center who had been sentenced to 15 years for the possession of 15,000 ecstasy pills. He had only served two years.
AU was under medical treatment at the hospital on a referral from the detention center as he regularly complained of stomach pain.
“The suspect argued that he was sick, but apparently he turned the hospital [room] into a factory. We conducted an investigation and raided his VVIP room after getting information from the public,” Heru said on Wednesday as quoted by kompas.com.
The Sawah Besar Police in Central Jakarta said its team first arrested another suspect, MW, 36, who had served as AU’s courier, and found 30 ecstasy pills.
“From an interrogation, we found out MW is AU’s courier who often went [to the hospital]. There were several production tools they ordered online,” Sawah Besar Police chief Comr. Eliantoro Jalmaf said on Thursday.
In the VVIP room, the police found evidence of ecstasy pills, dyes, a cell phone and ecstasy printing kits to turn powder into granules.
Read also: Pandemic could put people at greater risks from illicit drug trade: UNODC
“Our team is still investigating to identify the sales channels [for the drugs]. What is clear now is that [AU] sold the drugs for Rp 3 million [US$203] per package of 60 pills,” Eliantoro said.
The police said AU had earned Rp 140 million from the business after over two months in the hospital.
The Corrections Directorate General is set to transfer AU to the Nusakambangan maximum security prison in Central Java.
“With security considerations, AU will be transferred [on Thursday] to a one-man cell under super maximum security at the Karanganyar prison in Nusakambangan,” said the directorate general’s spokesperson, Rika Aprianti.
Heru said the police would investigate a number of prison guards in charge of overseeing AU and the nurses who delivered food and medicine to the VVIP room.
AU and MW have been charged under multiple articles of the 2009 Narcotics Law and will get 20 years in prison if found guilty. (syk)
