Drug courier allegedly working for lawmaker arrested: BNN

A lawmaker of Langkat, North Sumatra was nabbed as drug dealer.

REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- Indonesia's National Narcotics Agency (BNN) personnel have nabbed Syafwadi for his alleged role as a drug courier for drug dealer Ibrahim alias Hongkong. The suspected dealer was a former legislator at Langkat District's legislative body representing the National Democrat Party (Nasdem) faction.

"The suspect was arrested at the Kualanamu International Airport, North Sumatra Province," Deputy of the BNN Drug Control Inspector General Arman Depari told Antara here on Thursday.

Syafwadi was alleged to have worked for Ibrahim by delivering crystal methamphetamine that he smuggled from the Malaysian city of Penang to the middle of the sea along with another suspect named Daus, he noted. The suspect confessed to the agency's investigators that he had delivered packs of crystal meth four times as requested by Ibrahim.

"For each delivery that Syafwadi made, he received Rp80 million (US$1=Rp14,642),"Depari stated, quoting the suspect's confession.

In the raids conducted on Sunday and Monday, members of the Langkat BNN, customs agency, and the navy's joint team foiled a trans-national drug ring's attempts to smuggle 105 kilograms of crystal meth, packed in three rice sacks, and 30 thousand ecstasy pills in Aceh Province and a small town of Pangkalan Susu, North Sumatra Province.

After developing the case, the joint team members detained the drug couriers, comprising Rinaldi, Ibrahim Jampok, Ibrahim Pusung Baru, Rahman, Joko, Amat, and Daus.

In response to Ibrahim's arrest, Nasdem Secretary General Johnny G Plate remarked that the suspect had been fired from the party as revealed in a letter that the party's general chairman, Surya Paloh, signed. Instead of defending his party's cadre, Johnny G Plate asked the BNN law enforcers to punish him severely for his role as the big fish of the transborder drug trade, he explained.

With millions of drug users and a huge population, Indonesia has been perceived by both local and trans-national drug dealers as one of their potential markets in Southeast Asia.

According to Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, the former coordinating minister for political, legal, and security affairs, the value of drug trades in Indonesia is estimated to have reached at least Rp66 trillion, where 75 percent of the drug trafficking may be directed from inside the prison.

While considering the real threats of the illicit drugs that the drug kingpins smuggled into and traded in the country over the past few decades, the Indonesian Government still applies harsh punitive actions against the drug kingpins.

Even, Indonesian President Joko Widodo had ever ordered the police and National Narcotics Agency (BNN) officers to conduct a shoot-at-sight operation on drug kingpins. The president's order to take the harsh punitive actions against drug dealers was given on Sept 3, after the drug traffickers attacked and threatened the lives of the police and BNN officers. Since then, the law enforcers have taken the tough action on the ground.

Various elements of society support the legitimate harsh actions as the illicit drug trafficking and drug abuse have become a major threat to Indonesia. According to BNN, some 50 Indonesians die of illicit drugs every day, while the total number of drug users in the country has reached seven million.

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