Some 5.3 kg of the 8.4-kg drug package had been seized from Hari Junanto, a Surabaya resident, who was part of a Jakarta drug ring, East Java Police spokesman Sen. Coms. Trunoyudo Wisnu Andiko was quoted as saying by ANTARA in Surabaya on Thursday.
The rest of the 3.1 kilograms of crystal meth were confiscated from two other suspects identified as Lugianto, a resident of Wonosunyo Village in Gempol, Pasuruan District, and Nafiin Saiful Anam, a resident of Pakel Village in Jombang District, he remarked.
The three suspects belonged to the Pasuruan drug ring that had links with the Jakarta syndicate, he remarked, adding that the Malaysian drug traffickers still employed an old method to smuggle the 8.4-kg drug package.
The traffickers still packed the drug packages by using herbal tea bags whose covers bore Latin alphabets and Chinese characters. The illicit drug packages were smuggled into East Java through land, air, and sea.
The drug cases are still under the East Java police's investigation, and the suspects are charged under the Indonesian drug law and liable to serve a 15-year jail term.
Domestic and transnational drug dealers perceive Indonesia as a potential market owing to its vast population and millions of drug users. Drug trade in the nation is valued at nearly Rp66 trillion.
People from all sections of society are falling prey to drugs, regardless of socio-economic and professional backgrounds.
In the face of the grave threat posed by drug lords, National Narcotics Agency (BNN) Chief Commissioner General Heru Winarko sought capital punishment for those involved in drug trade in the country.
National Police Chief General Idham Azis recently highlighted that district courts in different parts of Indonesia had awarded capital punishment to at least 100 drug offenders in the first half of 2020.
"May they soon be executed by firing squads to deter others," he stressed while bearing witness to the National Police special task force’s move to destroy 1.2 tons of crystal meth, 35,000 ecstasy pills, and 410 kg of marijuana in Jakarta on July 2, 2020.
The Indonesian Legal and Human Rights Ministry has also hinted its support for transferring convicted drug dealers and producers to the maximum-security prison in Cilacap District's Nusakambangan Island since it has adequate number of vacant prison cells.
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Translator: Willy I, Rahmad Nasution
Editor: Fardah Assegaf
Copyright © ANTARA 2020
