JAKARTA: More than 2,000 Indonesians have been arrested in Malaysia on charges of being couriers of methamphetamine to be smuggled to Indonesia over the past two years.
Chief of the drug investigation agency (JSJN) of Bukit Aman, Malaysia, Noor Rashid Ibrahim was quoted as saying by local media in Kuala Lumpur here the other day that from 2012 to May 2014, the Malaysian authorities had arrested 2,240 Indonesians on charges of smuggling or trying to smuggle drugs from Malaysia mainly to Indonesia.
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“This year alone, 153 Indonesians have been arrested and charged with being drug runners and members of drug syndicates,” Ibrahim said.
The price of the drug was much higher in Indonesia thus motivating the smuggling despite the risk of heavy punishment, he said.
The price of methamphetamine is around 500,000 (US$150,000) – 600,000 ringgit (Rp 1.9 – Rp 2.2 billion) per kg in Indonesia as against only around 150,000-200,000 ringgit (Rp 554 million- Rp 738 million) per kg in Malaysia.
He said many smugglers had been convicted by the Malaysian courts and some of them were awaiting execution by hanging. “They have been ready to risk losing their life for thousands of ringgits paid by a syndicate based in Malaysia,” he said.
Ibrahim said the drug runners tried to smuggle drugs via the coastal areas of Perak, Selangor or Johor.
JSJN cooperated with the Indonesian police and National Narcotics Agency (BNN) in a bid to stamp out drug smuggling between the two countries, he said.
Indonesian police report that almost every week there are cases of methamphetamine smuggling from Malaysia to Indonesia.
The drugs entered Indonesia via the ports of Bakauheni, Pekanbaru, Belawan of Medan, and Tanjung Balai.
