Riau Police Seize 81 Kilograms of Meth from Indonesian Citizens in Malaysia

The Riau Police held a press conference regarding the disclosure of the case of 81 kilograms of crystal methamphetamine from an international network from Malaysia. (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - The Riau Regional Police arrested narcotics dealers with the initials AS (52) and HS (47) and confiscated 81 kilograms of crystal methamphetamine imported and controlled by Indonesian citizens (WNI) residing in Malaysia.

"The initial perpetrator AS was arrested at a house on Swadaya Street, Tampan District, Pekanbaru City," said Riau Police Chief Inspector General Pol Agung Setya Imam Effendi, accompanied by Head of Public Relations Grand Commissioner Sunarto, Director of Drugs Grand Commissioner Victor Siagian, to reporters in Pekanbaru, quoted from Antara, Sunday. October 17th.

The Regional Police Chief explained that the arrest was carried out by Sub-Directorate I of the Riau Police Narcotics Directorate led by Grand Commissioner Adjutant Hardian Pratama.

Agung said his party will never stop and will continue to hunt down drug dealers who try to carry out their actions in the Riau region. Therefore, he invited all parties to work together in eradicating drugs.

"This is an international network that includes goods from Malaysia, controlled by Agam, an Acehnese citizen who is in Malaysia. AS, HS, and Agam networks are controlled by an inmate who is in Tangerang Prison, named Abu," said Agung.

According to Agung, these drugs will later be circulated in Pekanbaru, Jambi, South Sumatra or Palembang, and Jakarta.

Meanwhile, Grand Commissioner Victor added, the disclosure began with information obtained by Sub-Directorate I of the Narcotics Directorate on Friday, October 1, regarding the existence of an international narcotics network.

"The network came from abroad targeting Aceh-Riau. However, the drugs were detected in Pekanbaru City," he said.

Furthermore, the Head of Sub-Directorate I of the Riau Police's Narcotics Directorate, Grand Commissioner Adjutant Hardian, and his team immediately conducted an investigation. After a long time of stalking, the police finally arrested a man with the initials AS who was suspected by officers as a narcotics dealer.

"After AS was secured, officers found a conversation via voice note using the Aceh language on his cellphone related to narcotics transactions," explained Victor.

Then on Tuesday, October 12, the team searched AS rented house on Swadaya Street, Tampan District, Pekanbaru City. In the rented house, the police found 32 packs of crystal methamphetamine stored in Chief's cigarette box.

"AS admitted that the drugs belonged to someone named Agam (a resident from Aceh) who was in Malaysia. From AS arrest, the police immediately carried out developments. Then, the police again arrested another perpetrator, namely a woman whose initials were HS," he said.

"The team had difficulty finding HS because HS' cellphone was turned off. But finally, HS was caught at a hotel in Simpang Tiga Airport," said Agung.

Then the police interrogated HS and the team found the key to the house which was later admitted to be the key to the house used to store methamphetamine. The police immediately searched a rented house on Jalan Pasir Mas, Bina Widya Pekanbaru, and obtained evidence of methamphetamine.

"The perpetrators were charged with Article 114 paragraph (2) in conjunction with Article 112 paragraph (2) of RI Law NO 35 of 2009 concerning Narcotics, with the threat of death penalty or imprisonment for a minimum of 5 years, a maximum of 20 years," he said