"The enforcement succeeded in seizing illegal traditional medicines that are valued at Rp1.4 billion and listed on the 'Public Warning' on the Indonesian of Food and Drugs Authority," Head of Soetta Customs Enforcement and Investigation Zaky Firmansyah stated in Tangerang, Banten Province, on Wednesday.
Firmansyah remarked that the medicines will be sent to Kyrgyzstan through the general export procedure.
Firmansyah explained that the enforcement stemmed from information obtained from surveillance by the Soekarno-Hatta Customs and Excise Supervision Unit, which indicated that there would be a large shipment of goods from Indonesia to Kyrgyzstan in the form of illegal drugs.
"With that information, we carried out further observation in the Cargo Area," Firmansyah revealed.
Later on, he said, following up on the information, the officers found submissions of goods export notifications (PEB) of "herbal medicament" for exporters, with the company initials PDM, located in Jakarta.
Based on these findings, he explained that a physical inspection of the goods was conducted on August 7 to ensure the contents of the export shipment were in accordance with the proposed PEB.
"When it will be inspected, the export goods had been removed to PT JAS's Export Warehouse, located in the airport's cargo area," he remarked.
As a result of the inspection, the officers found three types of traditional medicines consisting of 20 PK montalin, totaling 100 cartons, as well as two cartons each of 15 PK wild wasps and 25 PK samyunwan.
"If we sum it up, the evidence found was 200 cartons weighing 1,845 kilograms," Firmansyah noted.
The illegal traditional medicines are now handed over to the Food and Drug Authority for further investigation.
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Translator: Yoanita Hastryka Djohan
Editor: Rahmad Nasution
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