BNN Head Commissioner General Marthinus Hukom reported the arrest of a female suspect, with the initials BR, at Soekarno Hatta International Airport, Banten, on October 6, intercepting the smuggling of 2,366 grams of cocaine en route from Brazil to be sold in Australia.
"The cocaine was smuggled by a female Indonesian citizen, starting from Sao Paolo (Brazil) through the Middle East, then smuggled to Jakarta, and would be distributed to another country," he revealed on Thursday.
Meanwhile, Hukom remarked that the Golden Triangle network operating in Asia involved five suspects, with evidence of 19,987 grams of crystal methamphetamine.
"The smuggling came from outside of Indonesia through Sumatra Island and then being sent to Jakarta for distribution in Java Island," he remarked.
Regarding cocaine smuggling, Hukom said the suspect admitted that the illicit goods were not meant for distribution in Indonesia.
Meanwhile, BNN's Deputy of Eradication Inspector General I Wayan Sugiri attributed the successful operations to the cooperation between BNN and several parties such as the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the Directorate General of Customs and Excise.
Sugiri stated that the cocaine smuggling operation from Brazil was identified through joint BNN-DEA analysis while methamphetamine smuggling was detected on October 19 through cooperation between the Directorate General of Customs and Excise and the Directorate General of Corrections.
The suspects brought the evidence from Medan, North Sumatra, to Java aboard a minibus and were arrested in Bogor, West Java.
During the search, officers found 20 packages of methamphetamine concealed separately under the seats and trunk of the car.
Based on BNN's interrogation, the suspects were involved in the Aceh-North Sumatra-Java drug trafficking network controlled by MI and I.
Furthermore, the team found that the network was also controlled by a couple -- Suriana and Juliadi -- currently in Bangkok, Thailand.
"We are still looking for them," he noted.
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Translator: Donny Aditra, Resinta Sulistiyandari
Editor: Rahmad Nasution
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