JAKARTA: An anti-drug body said on Monday it has discovered 72 international drug cartels to have been operating in Indonesia, leading to the country of 250 million people becoming the biggest market in ASEAN.
National Narcotics Agency (BNN) head Budi Waseso said the agency uncovered that one of the drug cartels had earned Rp 3.6 trillion a year from the drug trade. If each cartel has average earnings of Rp 1 trillion a year, the spread of illegal narcotics among Indonesians would conceivably cost the country Rp 72 trillion annually, he added.
“Indonesia is the largest drug market in Southeast Asia with the number of the users continuing to increase,” Budi said while signing an agreement between the anti-drug agency and Bank Indonesia on the prevention and eradication of drug abuse and smuggling in Jakarta.
Budi said more than 5 million Indonesians were drug addicts, mostly consuming crystal methamphetamine, locally known as shabu-shabu, that comes from China, Europe and South America. “Of all international drug cartels operating in Indonesia, as many as 48 are affiliated with drug cartels in 22 prisons,” Budi added.
