Synthetic Tobacco Manufacturer Network Arrested By Bekasi Police Use Raw Materials From Overseas

Officers showed evidence of the search results of five perpetrators of narcotics manufacturers of the type of home synthetic tobacco / ANTARA

BEKASI - The Bekasi Metropolitan Police dismantled a network of home producers who processed synthetic tobacco-type narcotics raw materials into ready-to-sell goods in a solid to a liquid form. Bekasi Metro Police Chief Kombes Twedi Aditya Bennyahdi explained that the disclosure of this network of home producers originated from the development of the case of the suspect that had been previously secured after buying synthetic narcotics online on social media. "Starting from the development of the case, we arrested as many as five suspects who turned out to be acting as producers of home-made drugs," said Twedi when releasing the case at the Bekasi Metro Police Headquarters, Antara, Thursday, June 22. The five suspects who were arrested had the initials MIJ (20), MIM (24), S (28), MR (20) and M (21) who were arrested in a number of different locations. The modus operandi of these suspects is to rent a number of rented houses in the jurisdiction of Karawang Regency to be used as locations for the production of synthetic drugs. "Then for the modus operandi of their activities, they rented a house, then the house was used as a location for the processing and production of synthetic narcotics and those that were ready to be sold. Then they sold using social media," he said. From the results of raids on three rented houses, the police confiscated evidence of synthetic tobacco weighing 13.6 kilograms, synthetic raw materials or seeds weighing 263.17 grams, 70 bottles of liquid narcotics worth five milliliters, and eight bottles of liquid 15 milliliter (ml) plastic. There is also evidence of bottles filled with synthetic drug liquid ready to circulate as many as nine bottles measuring 15 ml, 25 ml of narcotics spray as many as 12 bottles, to electric scales. According to the perpetrator's confession, the drug production process was carried out in stages and moved from place to place. Meanwhile, raw materials are obtained from abroad. "If they start producing between three and nine months. They operate through four stages of processing and producing this in their place. So there are some indeed, several places are secured. There are raw materials from local, some are from Korea," said Twedi. The suspects circulated drugs on social media targeting students and students in Jabodetabek and Karawang. "In the form of rupiah, this evidence is equivalent to approximately Rp. 1.9 billion. If it is calculated from the number of people we can save from this use, as many as 33 thousand people," said Twedi.

The perpetrators are subject to Article 114 paragraph 2 and/or Article 113 paragraph 2 sub-article 112 paragraph 2 of the Law of the Republic of Indonesia Number 35 of 2009 concerning Narcotics with the threat of a sentence of six to 20 years in prison.