Usually the narcotic type of meth from the Middle East is in ready-to-use form. This is a new mode of tricking (the authorities) by sending half-finished ingredientsWest Jakarta (ANTARA) - West Jakarta Police have uncovered a new mode employed by an international drug-trafficking network to distribute methamphetamine: sending the drug in gel form via air and declaring it as food to trick the authorities.
The police made the discovery after arresting two Iranian nationals for drug distribution.
“Usually the narcotic type of meth from the Middle East is in ready-to-use form. This is a new mode of tricking (the authorities) by sending half-finished ingredients,” Jakarta Police’s public relation division head Senior Comm. Pol. Yusri Yunus said here on Thursday.
The two Iranian suspects, identified by their initials as BF and FS, came to Indonesia in 2019 to monitor the situation in the country before producing meth, Yunus informed.
After they deemed the situation as relaxed, the two suspects asked someone from Turkey to send narcotics materials in gel form, he said.
A Turkey-based supplier packaged the gel along with other goods, so the goods monitoring machine at the airport failed to detect it, he said.
“To trick (the officers), it is usually registered in manifest as food; in fact, the gel nearly became perfect meth,” Yunus pointed out.
The meth in gel form was dispatched from Turkey several times since 2019, he said.
After the gel packages arrived, they were directly processed into meth, which was categorized as first quality meth, he said.
“They processed it in their house as a ‘home industry’ for producing first quality meth,” he noted.
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Operating from Karawaci, the two suspects distributed meth to some regions, such as Jakarta and Tangerang, Yunus said.
However, he did not provide details about where and how they distributed the meth.
“They produced 10, 15, even 20 kilograms of meth, which was sold in some Jakarta regions. We are investigating it again,” he informed.
The two suspects are subject to Article 113 paragraph (2) subsidiary Article 114 paragraph (2) subsidiary Article 112 paragraph Jo Article 132 paragraph (1) Law No. 35 of 2009 pertaining to narcotics, which carries the most severe punishment of the death penalty, he added.
Earlier, West Jakarta Police had raided a luxurious home that had been converted into a meth factory at a housing complex in Karawaci, Tangerang city, Banten province on Wednesday (September 1, 2021).
“Yes, it is right that we successfully raided a narcotic laboratory in one of the luxurious housing complexes,” West Jakarta Police chief, Senior Comm. Pol. Ady Wibowo, confirmed here on Thursday (September 2, 2021).
The raid was launched after the West Jakarta Police Narcotic Unit uncovered a drug distribution case in Kalideres sub-district, West Jakarta.
In connection with the case, they also received a tip on a meth factory operating out of Karawaci, Tangerang city, officials said.
Based on the tip, the police officers raided the home and arrested two people who were later named suspects in the case.
West Jakarta Police said it is still investigating the involvement of other parties in the case.
The police is also coordinating with the Forensic Laboratory Center (Puslabfor) at the National Police Headquarters to investigate the type of drugs produced at the factory, officials said.
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Translator: Walda Marison, Juwita Trisna R
Editor: Rahmad Nasution
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