Banjarmasin, S Kalimantan (ANTARA) - Banjarmasin Mayor Ibnu Sina commended the National Police for thwarting the attempt of two drug dealers to trade 200 kilograms crystal methamphetamine on Thursday morning since scores were saved from being siphoned into drug addiction.
"This is our police's extraordinary achievement. I cannot imagine if they had failed to confiscate the addictive drugs and they had then been traded to our people," Sina told local journalists in Banjarmasin, the capital of South Kalimantan Province, on Thursday.
A joint team of the National Police and South Kalimantan Police Headquarters had launched a drug raid operation at Sienna Inn Hotel's parking area on Thursday morning. The team members arrested two suspects and seized some 200 kg of crystal meth.
Regarding the seizure of the crystal meth, or locally known as sabu-sabu, concealed by the suspects in 10 sandbags, Sina affirmed that the Banjarmasin city administration was prepared to intensify cooperation with the police to win the country's war on drugs.
To this end, the city's public order agency (Satpol PP) personnel could be empowered to enable them to support the law enforcers' preventive measures as part of the country's war on drugs, he emphasized.
Domestic and transnational drug dealers view Indonesia as a potential market on account of its huge population and millions of drug users. Drug trade in the nation is valued at nearly Rp66 trillion.
People from all sections of society are falling prey to drugs, regardless of socio-economic and professional backgrounds.
The drug crisis has also engulfed those from the country's entertainment industry, as is apparent from the arrests of several entertainers over consumption and also trade of illicit drugs.
In the face of the grave threat posed by drug lords, National Narcotics Agency (BNN) Chief Commissioner General Heru Winarko sought capital punishment for those involved in drug trade in the country.
National Police Chief General Idham Azis recently highlighted that district courts in different parts of Indonesia had awarded capital punishment to at least 100 drug offenders in the first half of 2020.
"May they soon be executed by firing squads to deter others," he stressed while bearing witness to the National Police special task force’s move to destroy 1.2 tons of crystal methamphetamine, 35 thousand ecstasy pills, and 410 kilograms of marijuana in Jakarta on July 2, 2020.
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EDITED BY INE
