The confiscated crystal meth was destroyed using an incinerator owned by the agency in the presence of representatives of local police, office of public prosecutors, the Food and Drug Monitoring Agency (BPOM), and health office.
The BNN officers also present KH and FH, two suspects of the drug case only identified by their initials. Both of them are residents of North Sumatra Province.
According to Amanto, the Aceh National Narcotics Agency officer, the two suspects might belong to the Aceh-North Sumatra drug ring. They are currently detained at the BNN compound for further investigation.
With millions of drug users and a huge population, Indonesia has been perceived by both local and trans-national drug dealers as one of their potential markets in Southeast Asia.
The BNN noted that some 50 Indonesians die of illicit drugs every day, while the total number of drug users in the country has reached seven million.
Despite the BNN and police`s efforts to crush the drug trafficking networks, the National Police recorded an increase in the number of drug cases they uncovered in the fourth week of December 2018 and in early January 2019.
This early January, the police have uncovered 469 drug cases, Director of the Narcotics Division at the National Police Crime Investigation Department Brig. Gen. Eko Daniyanto remarked in a press statement that Antara received recently.
The number of drug cases that the police have successfully uncovered in early January increased around 22 percent compared to the fourth week of December 2018, when the figure was recorded at 384, he revealed.
The number of suspects that the police nabbed during various raids also increased from 481 in the fourth week of December 2018 to 622 in early January.
However, the drugs, such as marijuana, crystal meth, cocaine, and ecstasy, which the police seized in early January decreased in quantity. Instead, drugs such as Gorilla tobacco and Ketamine pills increased in quantity, Daniyanto noted.
Based on the police`s mapping, West Java, North Sumatra, and South Sumatra belonged to the top three provinces with the highest number of drug cases in early January.
The police also remain cautious about cross-border drug smuggling activities, particularly those from Malaysia into Dumai, Riau Province, as well as marijuana trafficking from Aceh Province to cities in Java Island through Lampung Province.
Reporting by M. Haris Setiady Agus, Rahmad Nasution
Reporter: Antara
Editor: Fardah Assegaf
Copyright © ANTARA 2019
