Drug Routes through Fishing Ports

JAKARTA, KOMPAS – Drug dealers from Malaysia are using fishing ports at Muara Angke, North Jakarta, on their smuggling routes for crystal methamphetamine. International syndicates are changing their smuggling methods from planes and containers to wooden fishing boats.

The smuggling of 13.5 kilograms of meth from Malaysia to Jakarta Bay on Thursday night (2/2) was exposed after the National Narcotics Agency (BNN) and the Directorate General of Customs and Excise ambushed the KM Dzaki Pratama 02 fishing boat, which was set to moor at Muara Angke.

BNN head Comr. Gen. Budi Waseso said on Friday in Jakarta that the police found meth on board the wooden boat after spying on SBK, 38, a suspected meth dealer from Malaysia who was lurking around Muara Angke. SBK flew from Malaysia and waited for the ship in Jakarta.

The BNN and the Directorate General of Customs and Excise lost trace of the boat near Harapan Island, but found it again near Pramuka Island, and continued to follow it. “After the boat arrived at Jakarta Bay, we ambushed it,” said customs and excise director general Heru Pambudi.

“When ambushed, SBK tried to resist arrest. The Malaysian drug dealer was shot and died on the way to the hospital,” said Waseso. They also arrested five suspects — the boat’s captain MA and crew members ES, IS, S and AP.

“This syndicate’s method was to use fishing ports as if they were carrying fish. We have long detected them,” he said.

Stamps on his passport showed that SBK had repeatedly visited Indonesia and was suspected to have repeatedly smuggled meth to the country.

The officials confiscated evidence including the boat’s global positioning system (GPS) and searchlights. The searchlights were allegedly used to give signals to syndicate members on land that the meth smuggling boats had arrived.

Change of method

Heru Prambudi said the uncovering of the case began from information received by the BNN from Thailand’s Narcotics Suppression Bureau (NSB), saying that drugs would be shipped to Indonesia by a syndicate controlled by Malaysian citizen CYH.

The smugglers departed from Malaysia using wooden boats heading to Tembilahan, sailing along the east shore of Sumatra, before reaching Jakarta Bay. They changed boats multiple times to eliminate any trace of their three-day journey.

According to Heru, the drug smugglers changed from using planes and containers to using traditional boats. The method of using traditional boats in Jakarta Bay was also used two to three years ago, but was abandoned because fishing ports started to be monitored. The drugs were previously smuggled to Dumar and Belawan ports.

“Muara Angke Port is a suitable choice for smugglers because there are many fishing boats there. Once the boat mingles with the group of fishing boats, it becomes difficult to detect,” said Heru.

The Directorate General of Customs and Excise has improved surveillance in Jakarta Bay and has deployed patrol boats along the eastern shore of Sumatra up to Thousand Islands.

In 2017, the Directorate General of Customs and Excise uncovered 20 drug smuggling cases and confiscated evidence of 2.1 tons of drugs. At least 54.7 percent of these cases were from Malaysia using the smuggling method of hiding the drugs on their bodies.

Selling through Instagram

Meanwhile, the Jakarta Police’s drugs investigation department recently uncovered a case of synthetic marijuana, confiscating 4.35 grams of gorilla tobacco and arresting four suspects — FR, RY, RF and WT.

The four suspects allegedly sold marijuana using the Instagram accounts @tembakoganesha and @hmgadjah. Their customers were mainly young people.

According to Jakarta Police chief Insp. Gen. Mochamad Iriawan, the suspects were arrested in four different places, including Karang Tengah, Pondol Labu and Gunungsari, Surabaya. WT, who was arrested in Surabaya, was the producer of the gorilla tobacco. He was a chemist and knew how to produce it. He opened the illegal business as he was enticed by huge profits.

The Jakarta Police’s drugs investigation department director Sr. Comr. Nico Afinta explained that the uncovering of the case was based on the development of arresting suspect MY on Saturday (21/1) at Kampung Utan Ceger, Jakasetia, South Bekasi, with 10 kg of meth as evidence.

Meanwhile, indications of prisons being used as places for drug dealing has prompted the Law and Human Rights Ministry to immediately build a prison especially for drug dealers and smugglers. The location chosen for the prison is Natuna, Riau Islands, with security the main consideration.

On Friday, Law and Human Rights Minister Yasonna H. Laoly said the ministry and the National Police along with the BNN had discussed the option so that the issue of prison employees involved in drugs could be avoided. “We have 10 hectares of space in Natuna. The prison will only be for drug dealers, not all drug criminals,” he said. Yasonna has asked that the BNN send names of those categorized as drug dealers so they can be monitored.

Faraway island

The National Police’s criminal investigation department’s director for drugs crime Brig. Gen. Eko Daniyanto agreed that a special prison for drug dealers was badly needed. A security strategy will be planned when the penitentiary is established, such as encrypting cell phone signals and tightening the inmate visiting system. “It should be on a remote island so that cell phone signal is difficult access,” Eko said.

Having drug convict prisoners who had been dealers and users, Eko said, could prompt rampant drug transactions inside prisons.

President director of the Center for Detention Studies Gatot Goei  said the monitoring of inmates and prison guards was extremely weak. “The problem that must be resolved is the sneaking of cell phones into the prisons. If there are inmates or prison guards that bring a cell phone inside the prison, quick action must be taken against them,” he said.

Separately, in Medan, the Class I Tanjung Gusta prison is overloaded. With a capacity for 1,150 prisoners, the penitentiary currently holds 2,846 inmates and is only guarded by 18 prison guards. This is what has led to the ineffective supervision of inmates, enabling some of them to control drugs from behind bars. Based on Kompas’ observations, all objects brought in by visitors or LP Tanjung Gusta undergo X-ray scans and are photographed.

In Surabaya, two civil servant employees at the Class II Cilodong prison, Depok, were arrested by the East Java Police’s drugs investigation department personnel. The two were involved in a crystal meth syndicate controlled from inside the prison. East Java Police chief Insp. Gen. Machfud Arifin said the two prison officials acted as intermediaries between FL, a crystal meth dealer in Cilodong prison, and YN, a meth dealer in Surabaya.

(WAD/WIN/ILO/IAN/NDY/REK/NSA/SYA)