TEMPO.CO, Jakarta – The Papua police arrested three suspected drug smugglers, believed to belong to a Papua-Papua New Guinea (PNG) kingpin, during a raid in Jayapura District, Papua, on Wednesday, July 17, 2024.
Local cops seized 394 packages of marijuana from the suspects, identified as NJDM, IT, and TT, Chief of the Papua Police’s Narcotics Directorate, Senior Commissioner Alfian, stated on Saturday, July 20, 2024.
The marijuana packages were smuggled from PNG into the eastern Indonesian province of Papua, he remarked, adding that the police officers could apprehend the suspects owing to a tip-off from residents.
Alfian remarked that two of the suspected smugglers arrested in Toladan Village are citizens of PNG, while the other individual apprehended at Pojok Bridge in Sentani Sub-district is an Indonesian.
NJDM admitted to having obtained the marijuana package from three PNG citizens, identified as IT, TT, and M, Alfian stated, adding that M, however, could escape the police raid.
The Indonesia-PNG border remains vulnerable to cross-border criminal activities, including the trafficking of marijuana.
In the early morning of Thursday, March 21, 2024, Papua police officers arrested two PNG citizens for allegedly smuggling 51 packages of marijuana from their country into Papua.
They were apprehended at around 2:15 a.m. local time in the Hamadi Hanurata neighborhood of Jaya Selatan Sub-district, Jayapura City.
The suspects, identified as Junior Lenga and Rindox, carried 51 packages of marijuana that they had concealed in four sacks of rice.
Police investigators found that Junior Lenga was on the Jayapura city police’s priority watch list, as he had escaped from the Abepura Penitentiary when jailed in connection with a drug smuggling case.
On March 22, 2021, police officers in Papua also arrested a citizen of PNG for allegedly being involved in a cross-border drug trafficking network.
The police personnel confiscated five sacks of marijuana from the detainee, named Gadafi Kuentaw Waropo, 18.
He was apprehended in Many Island of Jayapura Selatan Sub-district, Jayapura City, following the arrest of Beny Toway Waropo, 28.
To fight cross-border drug trafficking operations, the PNG Police in West Sepik Province have sought collaboration with the Indonesian police in Papua.
A total of 110 PNG citizens are being sentenced in connection with drug cases in the Doyo Penitentiary in Jayapura District.
Domestic and transnational drug dealers perceive Indonesia as a potential market due to its huge population and extensive drug use.
The value of drug trade in the country is projected to have reached nearly Rp66 trillion (around US$4.2 billion), with the number of drug trafficking cases continuing to surge.
A joint survey conducted by BNN and the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) in 2019 pegged the number of drug users in Indonesia at over 3.4 million.
Editor’s Note: The title had been changed, previously it was “Indonesia’s Papua Police Seize 394 Packages of Marijuana Belongs to Papua New Guinea Kingpin.”
