Bandarlampung (ANTARA) - The Lampung police continue their crackdown on the networks of Fredy Pratama, a drug lord hunted down for trafficking 10.2 tons of crystal meth and 116,346 ecstasy pills in Indonesia from 2020 to 2023.

On September 28, local cops seized a Toyota Land Cruiser Hardtop, owned by a suspect named Khadapi Bin Alyus Abdi, in the city of Palembang, South Sumatra, Lampung Police spokesperson Sen. Coms. Umi Fadillah stated.

The seizure of the car, whose color was repainted from blue to gray, was conducted to follow up on a countermeasure and eradication of money laundering (TPPU) case, she noted here, Monday.

In addition to the confiscated car, the cops also followed up on the drug case of MN that resulted in the arrest of a 25-year-old member of the Fredy Pratama syndicate, identified as MBS, she remarked.

MBS, a drug courier in the Pratama drug ring, had, on four instances, transported the packages of crystal methamphetamine from Pekanbaru, Riau Province, to Surabaya, East Java, in January 2021, Fadillah stated.

The total weight of the crystal meth packages that MBS had transported reached 62 kg, Fadillah remarked, adding that the cops who arrested him also seized two BCA ATM cards, a cell phone, a backpack, and a house.

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The police investigators have charged MBS of violating Articles 114 (2), 132, 137, and 136 of Indonesia's Narcotics Law No. 35 of 2009. If the court found him guilty, he is subject to death penalty, she added.

Regarding the Pratama drug ring, Indonesia's National Police claimed to have crippled the syndicate.

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 noted on September 15.

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 had 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 had apprehended at least 39 suspected members of the Pratama drug ring. The suspects belong to the upper layer of the drug lord's network, he remarked.

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Translator: Rahmad Nasution
Editor: Jafar M Sidik
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