Owner Of A 2-hectare Marijuana Field In Gunung Leuser National Park, If You Need Money, Just Harvest And Sell

Photo via Antara

JAKARTA - The planter and owner of a 2-hectare cannabis field in the Gunung Leuser National Park area, Gayo Lues Regency, Aceh, with the initials AGM, is threatened with the death penalty.

"Those who (threatened) with the death penalty are only the cultivators, the AGM. For the others, they only distribute them", said the Director of the Directorate of Drug Investigation at the Yogyakarta Police, Kombes Adhi Joyokusumo, in Yogyakarta on Tuesday, February 8, as reported by Antara.

AGM is one of seven suspects arrested by the Directorate of Drugs and Drugs at the Yogyakarta Regional Police in a series of disclosures of marijuana dealer networks in Aceh, Medan, Bandung, Bogor, and Yogyakarta.

When AGM was arrested at his residence, Aceh Tamiang, Aceh on January 30, 2022, the police confiscated evidence of marijuana weighing 80 kilograms.

After interrogating AGM, the police received information about a marijuana field in the Gunung Leuser National Park area, Gayo Lues Regency, Aceh.

On February 3, 2022, 16 Yogyakarta Regional Police personnel assisted by 11 Gayo Lues Police personnel searched for the field.

To get to the location, the police team had to travel up to 6 hours by crossing rivers and cliffs. In the 2-hectare cannabis field, 20,000 cannabis trees as high as 1.5-2 meters with a total weight of about 2 tons or 2,000 kg were found. The economic value of tens of thousands of cannabis trees planted in the fields is estimated at IDR 14 billion.

AGM is the grower and owner of the cannabis tree. On that land, he planted, nurtured, and cultivated the forbidden plant.

"That is indeed the perpetrator's livelihood. When he needs money, he harvests it, then it is brought down", he said.

Adhi suspects that AGM is managing the marijuana field with his friends. Before being distributed, they pack the cannabis leaves that have been harvested and dried in several huts in the field.

"The perpetrators packed all the marijuana in huts in the fields. So, they brought down the marijuana in the packaged form", he said.

In the Gunung Leuser National Park area, Gayo Lues Regency, Aceh, according to him, the surrounding community uses the land to plant secondary crops.

"We are still learning who his friends are, whose circle (AGM) is", he said.

Based on information from the Gayo Lues Police, Aceh said Adhi, several community groups in the area still have businesses in the marijuana field.

Even though a program for planting lemongrass has been launched in the area to change the habit of growing marijuana, according to him, the community does not implement it because the selling value is low compared to marijuana.

"The national (scale) marketing is always from Aceh down to Medan. Some are dropped in South Sumatra, some are down in Lampung, some are in Jakarta", said Adhi.

Before arresting AGM, the police arrested six marijuana dealers and consumers with the initials DD (18), RD (24), BM (19), MA (51), AS (38), and JU (34).

In December 2021, the DIY Police arrested DD (18), RD (24), and BM (19) in Condong Catur, Depok, Sleman Regency, DI Yogyakarta. From DD the police confiscated marijuana weighing 2.1 kg, RD 3.5 kg, and BM 1.79 kg.

From the three suspects, the police received information that the marijuana was obtained from JU in Deli Serdang, Medan.

Before going to Yogyakarta, suspect RD had sold to MA (51) in Bandung as much as 2.4 kg of marijuana and to AS (38) in Bogor as much as 1 kg. Both the Supreme Court and the US have been arrested by the DIY Regional Police Team in December 2021.

In Deli Seradang, officers from the Ditresnarkoba Polda DIY arrested JU (34) by confiscating evidence weighing 1.5 kg of dried marijuana.

"We interrogated JU, he admitted that he got the goods from AGM", said Adhi.

Except for AGM, according to Adhi, the suspects were snared with life imprisonment or minimum imprisonment of 5 years and a maximum of 20 years in prison.

"Everything else carries a life sentence", he explained.