JAKARTA: The Soekarno-Hatta International Airport Police have seized 112,189 ecstasy pills and 94 kilograms of crystal methamphetamine, with a street value of Rp 206.5 billion (US$14.8 million), from four Chinese nationals.
“We pursued the case from Aug. 9 to 21, and have eventually arrested four suspects,” Soekarno-Hatta Police chief Sr. Comr. CH Patoppoi said here the other day, adding that the suspects allegedly worked for the Guangzhou drug ring.
He added that the suspects, identified as YMCB, CSW, PCP, and NKF, had been arrested in different locations and at different times.
The police first began investigating the case on Aug. 9 when the Soekarno-Hatta customs office reported 6 kilograms of crystal meth found in the suitcases of Guangzhou-Jakarta flight passengers YMCB and CSW, according to Patoppoi. He said that the smugglers were planning to deliver the drugs to PCP and NKF, who were already in the country.
With the information, the police nabbed PCP and NKF in West Jakarta and Central Jakarta, respectively, and confiscated 88 kilograms of crystal methamphetamine, 189 pills of ecstasy and 300 kilograms of sodium hydroxide.
Having interrogated PCP and NKF, the police said that the drug ring involved a big Chinese ecstasy player, CWY, who has an apartment in North Jakarta. The police also combed CWY’s apartment and found 112,000 pills of ecstasy. CWY is still at large.
Based on the police reports, the suspects were paid between Rp 16 million and Rp 50 million for smuggling and selling the drugs.
The four suspects will be charged with violating Law No. 35/2009 on narcotics with a maximum of 20 years imprisonment and a maximum fine of Rp 10 billion.
Aside from YMCB, CSB, PCP and NKF, the Jakarta police had previously arrested other suspects allegedly involving an international drug-ring based in China.
Earlier this month, the police nabbed three drug-smuggling suspects, including a 26-year-old Nigerian and seized 37 kilograms of crystal methamphetamine, with an estimated value of Rp 56 billion.
“The drugs came from Guangzhou, China, through a shipping service,” Jakarta Police chief Insp. Gen. Tito Karnavian said at that time, adding that the smugglers also belonged to the Guangzhou-Jakarta international drug syndicate, which operates in Indonesia, China, and Nigeria.
Its members inserted the drugs inside 28 women’s bags and shipped them from Guangzhou to Medan, North Sumatra, before transporting them to Jakarta through a shipping service, Tito added.
In July, the Jakarta police captured the country’s second-biggest drug haul this year.
They confiscated 360 kilograms of crystal methamphetamine worth Rp 574.4 billion ($42.5 million) from two drug traffickers, one of whom was a Hong Kong resident.
The biggest drug bust in terms of confiscated contraband occurred in January this year when the National Narcotics Agency (BNN) arrested a syndicate in a wholesale market in Kalideres, West Jakarta, for possessing 840 kg of crystal meth.
To smuggle the crystal meth from Hong Kong to Indonesia, one of the suspects, known as Wong Ching Ping, packed the drugs into 1 kg coffee containers and then mixed it with real coffee.
