JAKARTA: Parepare Police in South Sulawesi foiled an attempt to smuggle 6 kilograms of shabu-shabu (crystal methamphetimine) into their region earlier this week and arrested three people in connection with the incident.
The smuggling was the third such attempt intercepted by police so far this month, bringing the total amount of crystal meth confiscated to 16 kg. South Sulawesi Police spokesperson Sr. Comr. Frans Barung Mangera said the crystal meth was transported from Bontang, East Kalimantan, on board a motorboat that was afterward moored at the Nusantara Seaport in Parepare on Wednesday.
He said the police had arrested three people who picked up the drugs and named them all suspects. From them, the police said they learned that a bigger amount of crystal meth had already been taken out of the Nusantara Seaport.
“The crystal meth was seized on Wednesday, but we kept it a secret as developments were still being made, since more crystal meth had escaped the seizure and had been taken to Makassar [South Sulawesi] and Kolaka [Southeast Sulawesi],” Frans said, Thursday. He added an investigation team had been deployed to Kolaka to track down the drugs and the people involved.
Earlier this week police had seized 2 kilograms of crystal meth and in the second week of August they intercepted 8 kilograms of it, so the total amount of shabu-shabu seized this month alone was 16 kilograms.
From January to August 2016, the total amount of crystal meth that had been intercepted by police as people attempted to smuggle it through the Nusantara Seaport was 32 kilograms. Police admitted they have missed more since the port has been an entranceway for drugs into Sulawesi, which is why South Sulawesi Police chief Insp. Gen. Anton Charliyan said Nusantara should have an X-ray machine.
“We have used bloodhounds to search passengers and their luggage when they get off the ships at the seaport, but their abilities and endurance are very limited,” said Anton, expressing hope that the X-ray would be provided soon. The machine needed by the seaport, he said, was like the ones used at airports, only the capacity had to be bigger because ship passengers usually had more luggage.
The secretary of seaport operating company PT Pelabuhan Indonesia (Pelindo) IV, Baharuddin M., said the procurement of X-rays for the Nusantara Seaport and the Soekarno-Hatta Makassar Seaport had been scheduled for this year, or next at the latest. So far, he said, the machines used at seaports were manual ones, such as metal detectors that they could not optimally search passengers and luggage, especially for illicit goods like narcotics.
“We have planned the procurement of X-rays for seaports. This year or next year the Makassar and Parepare seaports will have the machines,” Baharuddin said.
