Indonesia arrests 285 smugglers, seizes drugs

Indonesian authorities said they arrested 285 people suspected of drug trafficking, including 29 women and seven foreigners, and seized over half a tonne of narcotics during a two-month crackdown.

Indonesia is a major hub for drug trafficking in Southeast Asia despite having strict drug laws, with convicted smugglers sometimes executed by firing squad.

The head of the National Narcotic Agency, Marthinus Hukom, said the crackdown, launched between April and June across 20 provinces, also uncovered money laundering schemes by two drug syndicates and confiscated assets worth more than 26 billion rupiah (about $1.5 million).

Thirty-six of the suspects, including 21 women, were paraded in front of reporters, along with confiscated drugs, in their orange prison uniforms and hands handcuffed.

Hukom said the women arrested were mostly married without jobs outside the home.

“I call on Indonesian women to be more vigilant in establishing friendships both in the real world and in cyberspace,” he said during a joint press conference with officials from the security affairs ministry and the customs office who took part in the operation.

One of the agency’s deputies, Budi Wibowo, said authorities seized 683,885 grams (0.68 tonne) of crystal meth, marijuana, ecstasy, THC, hashish and amphetamines, adding this helped stop them falling into the hands of “more than 1.3 million people.”

Wibowo also said that drug syndicates have used various methods to distribute narcotics to users via land and sea transportation or mail services. The seven foreign nationals were an American, two Kazakhs, two Malaysians, an Indian and an Australian, Wibowo said.

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime says Indonesia is a major drug-smuggling hub in part because international drug syndicates target its young population.

In a separate operation, authorities in the province of Riau Island, exposed in May two cases of drug smuggling in its waters and seized 2.7 tonnes of crystal methamphetamine and 1.2 tonnes of ketamine, Hukom said.

In 2023, authorities uncovered more than 52,000 of drug cases and confiscated 6.2 tonnes of crystal meth, 1.1 tonnes of marijuana and other types of synthetic narcotics, said Mochammad Hasan of the ministry of security affairs during the press conference.

Associated Press