We also got a tip on the suspects' connection with Mr X in Malaysia. This Mr X has a contact person, only identified as A, who is currently serving a jail termJakarta (ANTARA) - Indonesia’s National Police and the Customs and Excise Directorate General of the Finance Ministry have seized 159 kilograms of crystal methamphetamine in a series of raids and apprehended five suspected drug couriers.
Police believe the drugs were smuggled into Indonesia from China.
The successful drug raids started with the arrest of a woman, identified by her initials as ES, from the warehouse of a welding workshop in Pulo Asem village of the Babelan Kota neighborhood, Bekasi District, West Java, on May 27, 2020, chief of the National Police’s Criminal Investigation Department, Commissioner General Listyo Sigit Prabowo, told journalists on Thursday in Jakarta.
The woman was caught receiving a 35-kg package of crystal meth, recently transported from Pekanbaru, the capital of Riau Province, he added. Her arrest led police investigators to uncover the drug racket.
On June 18, 2020, Riau police investigators nabbed another suspect, identified by his initials as SD, with 5 kilograms of crystal meth, 3,000 ecstasy pills, and 300 pills of erimin-5, also known as Happy Five.
"We also got a tip on the suspects' connection with Mr X in Malaysia. This Mr X has a contact person, only identified as A, who is currently serving a jail term," Prabowo said, adding that the drugs were smuggled from ship to ship.
On June 21, 2020, an Indonesian flagged boat carrying 119 kg of crystal meth was stopped by personnel of the Halilintar Operation in the Peureulak waters of East Aceh District, Aceh Province, which led to the arrest of three drug couriers, identified as US, SY, and IR.
The suspects told investigators that they had received the drug package from a Malaysian citizen who boarded a vessel in Malaysia's Batu Putih waters. The Indonesian couriers then carried the package by boat to East Aceh waters, Prabowo said.
The drug raids resulted in the confiscation of 159 kg of crystal meth, 3,000 ecstasy pills, and 300 Happy Five pills, as well as a scale, nine smartphones, Rp1.6 million in cash, a boat, and a satellite phone.
Police believe the crystal meth may have been smuggled from China via Thailand and Malaysia to Indonesia. From Malaysia, the drugs were smuggled into Aceh through the sea route and transported by truck to Pekanbaru in Sumatra Island, said Prabowo.
From Pekanbaru, the drugs were hidden among staple food commodities and transported to the metropolitan areas of Jakarta, he added. (INE)
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EDITED BY INE
Translator: Anita PD, Rahmad Nasution
Editor: Fardah Assegaf
Copyright © ANTARA 2020
