Over the past three years, the police had uncovered 408 drug cases related to Pramata's network and arrested 884 suspects, Director of the National Police's Narcotics Investigation Division Brig. Gen. Mukti Juharsa stated.
As a result, the police could cut Pramata's supplies of crystal methamphetamine and ecstasy pills while his network of drug couriers and dealers in Indonesia had been crippled, he remarked here on Friday.
Due to the network of his drug couriers and dealers been crippled, it is difficult for Pratama's people to enter Indonesia, he noted, adding that the police's war on Pratama's drug ring has been launched since 2020.
He noted that since May this year, the National Police had also formed a special task force for hunting down the Fredy Pratama drug ring under the Operation "Escobar Indonesia."
Since then, the special task force personnel have, so far, apprehended 39 suspected members of the Fredy Pratama drug ring. The suspects belong to the upper layer of the drug lord's network, he remarked.
They play different roles, such as serving as couriers for transporting drug packages to Indonesia's western and eastern regions and falsifying documents for making citizen cards and bank accounts, and financial controllers.
The police had seized Pratama's evidence of drug crime and assets, including 10.2 tons of crystal meth, 116,346 ecstasy pills, billions of rupiah in cash, as well as properties and land, he said.
The total worth of Pratama's drug crimes that the police could have uncovered between 2020 and 2023 was cumulatively predicted to reach Rp10.5 trillion, he remarked.
The National Police special task force personnel continue to hunt down Pratama, who may not be in Indonesia, and a couple, identified as FA and PN, for their alleged involvement in the Pratama network, he stated.
The Indonesian police has put Pratama on its most-wanted list since 2014, while the red notice was issued in June 2023 to intensify collaborative efforts with the Thai and Malaysian police to hunt down the drug lord.
"Following the red notice issuance, he is practically unable to go anywhere unless he falsified (his personal data and travel documents)," he remarked.
The police had also arrested Pratama's parents and would likely probe his families in connection with the countermeasure and eradication of money laundering (TPPU) cases, he noted.
The police investigators also continue to track Pratama's assets to be confiscated for the state, he added.
Domestic and transnational drug dealers consider Indonesia to be a potential market due to its vast population and millions of drug users.
The value of drug trade in the country is estimated to have reached nearly Rp66 trillion, with the number of drug trafficking cases continuing to increase.
A joint survey conducted by the National Narcotics Agency (BNN) and the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) in 2019 pegged the number of drug users in Indonesia at over 3.4 million.
The survey conducted in 34 provinces indicated that about 180 out of every 10 thousand Indonesians in the age group of 15 to 64 years were addicted to drugs.
The users of crystal methamphetamine, narcotics, marijuana, and other types of addictive drugs can belong to any community and socioeconomic and cultural background.
Translator: Laily R, Rahmad Nasution
Editor: Azis Kurmala
Copyright © ANTARA 2023
