Drug Dealers Shot in Medan Linked To Malaysia Syndicate

Jakarta, April 24 (Antara) - The Indonesian police said that the two drug traffickers shot dead in Medan, North Sumatra, on Tuesday, were suspected to have link with a Malaysian drug syndicate. "The two drug dealers are suspected to have link with a Malaysian syndicate because the drugs were sent from Malaysia. We hope we can arrest the dealers in Malaysia so that the case could be uncovered," Sr Cmr Agus Rianto, the head of Public Relations Division of the Indonesian National Police, said here on Wednesday. Agus said that the Narcotics Directorate of the Police`s Criminal Investigation Department was to arrest two drug suspects in a hotel and a housing complex in Medan on Tuesday. But the two resisted the arrest, forcing the police to open warning fires but hit and killed the suspects. "The bodies of the two were taken to the Bhayangkara Police hospital in Medan for identification," Agus said. He said that police confiscated from the suspects 2 kg of methampethamine, 10 thousand ecstasy pills and a sharp weapon. Agus said that the arrest was made as a follow-up to the arrest of three suspects in Banjarmasin, South Kalimantan, on April 18, 2013. He said that from the three suspects the police among others confiscated 7 kg of methampethamine, 21 ecstasy pills, over 6,700 happy fives, 11 cellular phones and about 3.5 ounces of powder which was suspected be raw material for producing ecstasy pills. The illegal goods were suspected to have been smuggled in from Malaysia through Tanjung Balai Port of North Sumatra. He said that his side already had the identity of the party who owned or who sent the drugs from Malaysia. "The Indonesian police have coordinated with the Malaysian police to uncover the drug syndicate," he said. According to Chief of the National Narcotic Agency (BNN), Anang Iskandar, Batam City has so far become the main entryway of narcotic smuggling from abroad to other regions in the country. "Most narcotic drugs from Malaysia entered through Batam and from there to Jakarta," he said on the sidelines of a technical meeting on the implementation of integrated interdiction 2013 here on Wednesday. Based on several narcotic syndicates that have been uncovered by BNN it was found that the biggest part of narcotic smuggling was carried out through Batam, an island in the Sumatran province of Riau Islands, although in percentage it was still below 50 percent. Batam`s strategic location which is close to several neighboring countries has made it become the main entryway for illegal goods, he said. "In Batam there are a lot of traditional ports that have been used as entryways," he said. Besides Batam, Malaysia also has many traditional ports which are not watched to make traffic of illegal goods to often happens, he added. In the meantime, police in Bangkalan district, East Java, have also arrested seven people on charges of abusing drugs in a raid on Monday. "The arrest of the seven drug suspects is the result of cooperation between the Bangkalan police resort and the East Java provincial police," Bangkalan police resort chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Endar Priantoro said on Monday. During the raid conducted from 00.00 - 02.00 p.m. local time, the police searched a number of houses in Tapel, Rabasan and Parseh villages in Socah sub-district, Bangkalan district, believed to have been used for drugs transaction, he said. The seven are identified as Moh Romli (40), Margelap (40), Robi (32), Sarif Maulana (53), Arik (32), Daus Prana (31), and Mansur (25), all of them Bangkalan residents. The police also confiscated 0.32 grams of crystal meth (shabu-shabu) from the suspects as evidence.