“As many as 3.3 million Indonesians are trapped in drug addiction. This is not only about numbers but a potential that crime syndicates take advantage of,” BNN head Marthinus Hukom said in Garut, West Java.
The economic cost of drug smuggling has reached Rp500 trillion (approximately US$30.7 billion) in Indonesia, he informed.
The figure, he said, includes the costs borne by the state for handling drug inmates, whose number has crossed 200 thousand.
“As many as 52 percent of our prison inmates are drug abusers,” he pointed out.
Hukom further revealed that around 90 percent of drugs entering Indonesia are smuggled via coastal routes, adding that the southern part of West Java is one of the areas vulnerable to smuggling.
“Several years ago, we confiscated more than a ton of drugs in that area. This means that some of our own people are involved, whether consciously or unconsciously, in helping the smuggling of drugs into the country,” he informed.
The BNN head said that drug traffickers are now not only targeting urban communities but also people living in rural areas.
“The drug lords promote the propaganda that crystal meth (methamphetamine) can boost productivity. Plantation and mining workers and farmers are tempted because they want to work more energetically when, in fact, it is a trap,” he expounded.
Earlier, Hukom revealed that drug syndicates are increasingly trying to recruit women, including housewives, as couriers or operators of drug distribution rings.
According to BNN data, 29, or around 20 percent, of the 285 suspects arrested in drug cases from April to June 2025 were women.
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Translator: Rubby Jovan, Raka Adji
Editor: Azis Kurmala
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