Prevent Drug Smuggling Through International Cooperation
Illustration - Drug eradication. ANTARA/Yudi Abdullah

JAKARTA - Foreign cooperation is needed to strengthen the efforts of the National Police to prevent narcotics and illegal drugs smuggling into the country.

Over the years, the National Police have established international cooperation in preventing drug smuggling with several countries, namely Malaysia, Cambodia, Japan, Korea, the Middle East, and several other friendly countries.

Director of Narcotics Crime (Dirtipidnarkoba) Bareskrim Polri Brigadier General Krisno H Siregar said the cooperation was in the form of cooperation at global, regional and bilateral levels. The National Police established a memorandum of understanding (bilateral cooperation) with Malaysia, the Cambodian police, and others.

Then regional cooperation, namely with regional countries, participating in multilateral meetings at UNODC, namely the United Nations (UN) organization dealing with drugs and crime, and meetings with donor countries.

The form of international cooperation is in the form of exchanging investigations and joint investigations, as well as developing police capacity in the field of drug prevention and law enforcement.

In addition to cooperation in the form of capacity building and joint investigations and investigations, the cooperation between the National Police and other countries in the world is also in the context of developing drug cases handled in the country.

"For example, drug offenders caught in Indonesia have a relationship (cooperation) with a certain country, the National Police respects the form of cooperation built with that particular country," Krisno said when confirmed in Jakarta.

Meanwhile, in terms of eradicating drug abusers, said Krisno, the cooperation carried out by the Police is more about conducting joint investigations. This is because every country in the world has different political views regarding drugs. The National Police respects these differences in political attitudes, such as in a country that adheres to a system of no death penalty for drug offenders.

Establishing foreign cooperation in the prevention and eradication of drugs in the country requires sensitivity and intelligence to see whether the country has the same view, one of which is severe punishment for drug offenders.

Cooperation to Unload Big Cases

In handling drug crimes, the National Police maintains information related to cooperation with any country that has succeeded in uncovering narcotics crimes in the country. This is because each case sometimes has a connection with other cases, so that information can affect the investigation and the investigation carried out.

However, Brigadier General Krisno H Siregar emphasized that several cases of drug abuse and illicit trafficking that were successfully uncovered by the National Police were mostly the result of partners or collaborations that had been built with countries in the world.

In April 2022, the Directorate of Drug Crimes at the National Police Bareskrim together with the Riau Police, the Aceh Police, and the Directorate General of Customs and Excise worked together to uncover four cases of drug trafficking in several parts of Indonesia. The total evidence of narcotics types of marijuana weighing 121 kilograms and methamphetamine weighing 238 kilograms.

The distribution of marijuana type narcotics occurs in Aceh, which is the Aceh-Medan network. The suspects who were arrested were SY alias S (29) as the controller and R alias U (47) as the courier.

The second case is the disclosure of the Malaysia-Indonesia network of methamphetamine with 22 kilograms of evidence. The suspects who were arrested were HP alias H (31) and J (30) as couriers, as well as F who entered the DPO alias fugitive.

The third case is the illicit trafficking of methamphetamine from the Malaysia-Indonesia network, namely Bengkalis-Riau. Investigators managed to arrest four suspects with the initials MN (30) as the captain of the courier search ship, HA (37) as the courier who was looking for and renting a speedboat, MD (41) as the courier, and AM alias AT (40) as the controller. 47 kilograms of methamphetamine evidence.

The last case is the disclosure of the Middle East-Indonesia international network of drug trafficking, with evidence of 169.5 kilograms of methamphetamine. The joint team arrested five suspects, namely AR alias R (40) and JF bin AR (40) as the crew of the pickup courier ship, ZK bin AG (33) as the courier, MY bin AR (39) and SR bin SP (41) as the controller at land.

In June 2021, the Metro Jaya Police Narcotics Task Force Team uncovered a case of smuggling 1,129 tons of methamphetamine, allegedly involving Middle Eastern networks from Iran and Africa.

A total of seven suspects were arrested in the disclosure. The suspects were charged with Article 114 paragraph (2) subsidiary Article 115 paragraph (2) more subsidiary Article 112 paragraph (2) Juncto Article 132 paragraph (1) and paragraph (2) of Law No. 35 of 2009 on Narcotics with a threat of imprisonment life imprisonment and a maximum sentence of death.

“Cooperation with a number of countries is important. Based on the literature, drug crimes are trans-national. Police cannot only take action in Indonesia, while in the source country the perpetrators still send. This confused us. So how to prevent before the perpetrators send, with the existence of foreign cooperation relations can be prevented from the country," said Krisno.

ML as a deterrent effect

At the end of 2021, the Directorate of Drug Crimes (Dittipidnarkoba) of the Criminal Investigation Unit of the Police made a breakthrough in strengthening the Indonesian Government's efforts to fight against drugs by optimizing the application of the article on Money Laundering (TPPU) to drug dealers. five drug cases handled by the National Police Headquarters, this number increased by 400 percent compared to 2020, where there was only one case that was charged with money laundering. percent compared to 2020, there are only four suspected drug dealers who are impoverished with money laundering offences. What is unique about the implementation of this money laundering offense is that the state through the police as law enforcers confiscates the assets belonging to the suspects, both in the form of cash and land and buildings and luxury vehicles obtained from money from crime. The suspect's assets are good money and buildings, land and vehicles confiscated by Investigators of the National Police's Criminal Investigation Directorate in 2020 amounted to Rp.966,000,000, an increase of 35.28 percent compared to 2021, which was Rp.341,804,998,583. Investigators confiscated cash in the form of foreign currency worth 2 million Singapore dollars, when converted into rupiah, the nominal amount was Rp. 21 billion. Brigadier General Pol. Krisno H Siregar said that the efforts to implement ML in drug cases, although the numbers are still small, will continue to be maximized not only at the central level, but also at the regional police and ranks. Money laundering offenses against drug cases at the center and regions. The National Police divides the 34 Drug Investigation Directorates in the regional police throughout Indonesia into three regions with different task loads, namely very vulnerable areas, vulnerable areas and less vulnerable areas. For regional police areas that are very prone to illicit trafficking and abuse It is determined that at least five new drug cases are TPPU in one year, while the prone areas have three cases and the less prone areas are at least two cases. The National Police Headquarters also imposes an evaluation at the end of the year on the regional police who have not optimized the application of money laundering offenses in drug cases. in their area to explore what obstacles are being faced by the Jajara Regional Police n in following up on leadership directions. There will be a team of assistants from the National Police Headquarters who will be dispatched to the regions to find out if there are weaknesses in regional police resources in uncovering money laundering offenses in drug cases. Drug Crime Investigation Unit to make it easier for investigators to find money laundering offenses in the drug cases they handle. Even the National Police Criminal Investigation Unit issued a telegram that strengthens control over money laundering offenses investigations as a follow-up investigation of the initial drug crime, and will be used as an assessment of the performance of each director and staff.” So if it is not possible (the money laundering crime investigation), it will be an evaluation," said Krisno.


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