TANGERANG: The National Police announced that they recently thwarted the trafficking of 1.5 tons of marijuana from a truck on Tangerang-Banten highway and arrested the truck’s driver on suspicion of trying to smuggle the dried leaves.
The police said in a statement that the marijuana was found inside 39 sacks loaded into a truck along with 120 sacks of staple foods that posed as a red herring should the police check the truck.
The National Police narcotics director Brig. Gen. Anjan Pramuka Putera said the marijuana was taken from Aceh and was intended to be brought to a warehouse in Bogor before it was raided on Dec. 16.
He said the police had arrested 31-year-old YS of Bogor, the truck’s driver, as he was the one held responsible for the distribution of the marijuana.
“He is the one responsible for taking the marijuana from Aceh to its distribution points in Bandung, Purwakarta and Garut [all in West Java],” he told reporters in a press briefing on Monday.
He said the confiscated marijuana was worth Rp 6 billion (US$441,000). During the press conference, the police claimed the catch “had saved the lives of 40,000 Indonesians who could have been potentially ruined by the marijuana”.
In a Monday press release, the police also announced that they had nabbed a man suspected of trying to distribute two kilograms of crystal methamphetamine and 2,000 ecstasy pills.
The suspect, identified as FZ, was arrested in front of a hotel in West Jakarta on Nov. 27, and all the drugs were to be distributed to Semarang in Central Java, according to the police.
The drugs confiscated from FZ were worth Rp 5 billion and their interception “saved 30,000 Indonesian lives”, the police claimed.
Separately on Monday, the National Narcotics Agency (BNN) announced their recent interception of seven kilograms of crystal methamphetamine from two men identified as AI, 44, and Z, 25.
BNN deputy chairman Dedi Fauzi Alhakim said officers busted the two men on Cikopo-Palimanan (Cipali) toll road in Subang, West Java, last Sunday when the two were attempting to smuggle the drugs from Jakarta to Surabaya in East Java.
“The drugs were from Malaysia and were about to be distributed to Surabaya through Jakarta. The two are part of an international drug ring and are controlled by individuals abroad and the drugs are from abroad,” he told reporters at the agency’s headquarters, adding that the agency was currently searching for the dealers controlling the distribution of the drugs in Indonesia.
Meanwhile, AI, one of the suspects, said that he received the drugs from dealers in Medan, North Sumatera and Aceh, adding that the two had previously smuggled three kilograms of meth before being arrested in their second attempt.
“Their sentences will be determined according to a court verdict. But, we really want them to be executed. We have to be strict on drug traffickers if we want to eliminate drug trafficking,” he said. (saf)
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