Drug Stash Found in North Jakarta

Jakarta Globe, Zaky Pawas | October 05, 2010

Jakarta. Police uncovered a haul of illicit drugs worth Rp 6.9 billion ($773,000) after they arrested a man on the resort island of Bali on drug trafficking charges, an officer said on Tuesday.

The West Jakarta anti-narcotics unit arrested a 34-year-old man identified only as RF in a raid on a hotel in Bali, the unit’s chief, Comr. Kristian Siagian, said. He added that the police had been hunting the man for three months.

“He was a wanted man. He was arrested in a hotel in Denpasar, Bali, on September 27, 2010,” Kristian said.

Five grams of methamphetamine were found in the suspect’s hotel room, Kristian said, adding that Jakarta-based RF had been on the island for about a week.

Kristian said that after questioning the suspect, police raided two locations where he had stored illicit drugs.

The first was his house, at the upscale Premier Mansion residences in Bandengan Utara, North Jakarta, but police only found 15 grams of methamphetamine there.

The second location was an apartment in Pluit, also in North Jakarta, where police found a haul of 34,000 “Happy Five” or Nimetazepam pills — a hypnotic drug, 12,500 Ecstasy pills and 500 grams of ketamine, a recreational drug.

“The drug haul is worth a total of Rp 6.9 billion,” Kristian said.

He also said that RF told police he had only been in business for a year and obtained the drugs from overseas.

RF also said he only sold drugs in Jakarta, but police suspect he may also have been peddling them in Bali, in light of his many trips to the resort island.

Police are now looking for AH, a k a CH, in whose name the apartment was rented, and who RF named as his courier, saying drugs could only be ordered by phone and only in large quanti ties.