There will be more detailed information on the case on MondayMakassar, S Sulawesi (ANTARA) - The South Sulawesi police have confiscated 35 kilograms of crystal methamphetamine and several thousand ecstasy pills from a man arrested at a hotel in Makassar City on August 27 2021.
The suspect's identity has yet to be exposed, but the police vowed to announce it and provide more details on this drug offense on Monday.
“There will be more detailed information on the case on Monday,” Director of the South Sulawesi Police’s Narcotics Division Senior Commissioner, Laode Aries El Fathar, told journalists here, Sunday.
The man was apprehended at a hotel in Makassar, the capital of South Sulawesi Province, on Friday (Aug 27) evening.
He is currently under police custody, while evidence of his crime was examined at the police's forensic laboratory center, according to Fathar.
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On Thursday, or a day prior to the man's arrest, the South Sulawesi police officers also arrested two suspected drug dealers at a hotel in Makassar and seized some 40 kg of crystal meth and some four thousand ecstasy pills.
The suspects are only identified by their initials as SY and BJ, according to South Sulawesi Police spokesperson Senior Commissioner E. Zulpan.
SY is the resident of South Kalimantan Province, while BJ is the resident of Tallo Sub-district in Makassar, Zulpan remarked.
The South Sulawesi police investigators continue to probe the two drug cases to find whether they are closely linked in their efforts to uncover the suspects' drug ring, he stated.
Indonesia remains under grave threat from drug dealers, with scores from its working-age population trapped in a vicious circle of drugs.
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Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, which struck the country on March 2, 2020, drug lords have continued to pose a serious threat to the country with drug-trafficking rampant even amid the health crisis.
Since his first leadership term, President Joko Widodo has been reminding the nation of the serious impact of drug consumption on Indonesia.
While inaugurating a grand mosque in Pontianak, West Kalimantan, on January 20, 2015, he had warned that at least 50 people were dying of drug abuse every day.
The statistics included those who failed to get rehabilitated, he stated.
According to the National Narcotics Agency (BNN), the deaths have failed to deter drug users in the country.
The users of crystal methamphetamine, narcotics, marijuana, and other types of addictive drugs come from different communities and socio-economic and cultural backgrounds.
Citing the result of a survey by the BNN and Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), Vice President Ma'ruf Amin noted that Indonesia has over 3.4 million drug users.
The survey has shown that about 180 out of every 10 thousand Indonesians, aged between 15 and 64, have been pushed into drug addiction, he noted.
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Translator: MD Fatir, Rahmad Nasution
Editor: Fardah Assegaf
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