The Bekasi Metro Police arrested two dealers and seized thousands of ecstasy pills from an international trafficking network.
The gang is said to operate across Africa, Asia, and Europe and offenders IT, 32, and AI, 25, are suspected to have a foreign handler who is already in prison.
“Allegedly, the controller and orderer of the ecstasy is in one of the correctional institutions; the [foreign] buyers had the initials SHY, RP and AH,” said Bekasi Metro Police Chief Commissioner Gidion Arif Setyawan in a written statement on Wednesday 24th August 2022.
Police are investigating the connection between the foreigner and two other suspects in the circulation of the ecstasy pills. IT and AI were arrested by the police after being strongly suspected of being involved in the circulation of narcotics in an international network.
Their arrests began with public reports about the circulation of ecstasy which was being sent as packages from Africa with the final destination of Indonesia.
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“From this information, the police know that there is a plan to send ecstasy from Congo, across Belgium and Germany, and then end up in Asia in the Jakarta area,” said Setyawan.
The police immediately coordinated with the Soekarno-Hatta Airport Customs Office to monitor three receipts of packages suspected of containing ecstasy. Based on the results, customs stated that there were two shipping packages suspected of containing methamphetamine detained at German Customs, while another package passed to Indonesia.
The police again coordinated with Soekarno-Hatta Customs and Excise to check the destination address. However, after checking, the address listed was found to be fictitious. The police continued to monitor the delivery route for the packages suspected of containing narcotics.
A few days later, the police found instructions for the re-delivery of a package suspected of containing ecstasy pills to the Grand Wisata area in Tambun, Bekasi Regency.
“Finally, we managed to catch one person named IT complete with a package containing ecstasy pills,” he added.
From the results of the examination, IT said that the ecstasy package he received would be sent to the Tamansari area in West Jakarta. IT gave further information that led to the arrest of AI in a hospital parking lot in the Central Jakarta area, where 500 ecstasy pills were also recovered.
In total, the police secured evidence of a total of 4,911 pills weighing 2,140.2 grammes. Both suspects will now face trial and could be handed sentences of up to 20 years in prison.
“Article 114 is a subsidiary of article 112 concerning law number 36 of 2009 concerning narcotics with a penalty of up to 20 years in prison,” concluded Setyawan.