Posted 29 August 2006 @ 15:27
BANTEN, 29 August 2006 - Indonesian police on Tuesday confiscated nearly 1 ton of crystal methamphetamine apparently smuggled into the country from Hong Kong in what was believed to be the largest seizure in the country's history, a senior official said. The national police chief, General Sutanto, said about 950 kilograms of crystal methamphetamine, locally known as "shabu-shabu," was seized by the Jakarta city police during routine patrols in the Tanggerang district on the western outskirts of Jakarta, the state-run Antara news agency reported.
Sutanto, who like many Indonesians goes by one name, said he believes the drug seizure was the largest-ever haul in Indonesia. According to local police spokesman I Ketut Yoga Ana, the seizure occurred when police were conducting routine traffic stops on vehicles. Ana told the Detik.com news service that the drugs, worth up to 600 billion rupiah (51.5 million euro), were loaded into a mini-box van. He said the van's driver was in police custody for questioning.
"He [the driver] is not the main suspect," Ana was quoted as saying. "We believe that an international drug syndicate is involved in this case." Indonesian judges have handed down a number of lengthy prison sentences for narcotics trafficking in recent years, including death sentences, to get tough on a growing drug-abuse problem. In late 2004, two Thais and an Indian convicted of drug trafficking in 1994 were executed by firing squad.
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