JAKARTA (Reuters) – Indonesia’s navy seized a ship carrying nearly two tons of methamphetamine and cocaine worth $425 million off Sumatra this week, and arrested a Thai national and four Myanmar nationals found aboard the vessel, the navy said on Friday.
Officers apprehended the ship after it turned off its lights and increased its speed to try to flee Indonesian waters in the Tanjung Balai Karimun region of Riau Islands province, the navy said.
Officers seized nearly 100 yellow and white sacks holding about 1.2 tons of cocaine and 705 kilograms of methamphetamine worth 7 trillion rupiah ($425.92 million), navy spokesperson, I Made Wira Hady Arsanta Wardhana, said in a statement.
Indonesia has among the world’s strictest anti-narcotics laws and drug trafficking is punishable by death.
