Indonesia arrests 285 in drug crackdown and seizes over half a ton of narcotics

JAKARTA, Indonesia — Indonesian authorities said Monday they arrested 285 people suspected of drug trafficking, including 29 women and seven foreigners, and seized over half a ton of narcotics during a two-month crackdown.

Indonesia is a major hub for drug trafficking in Southeast Asia despite having strict drug laws, with convicted smugglers sometimes executed by firing squad.

The head of the National Narcotic Agency, Marthinus Hukom, said the crackdown, launched between April and June across 20 provinces, also uncovered money laundering schemes by two drug syndicates and confiscated assets worth more than 26 billion rupiah (about $1.5 million).

Thirty-six of the suspects, including 21 women, were paraded in front of reporters, along with confiscated drugs, in their orange prison uniforms and hands handcuffed.

Hukom said the women arrested were mostly married without jobs outside the home.

''I call on Indonesian women to be more vigilant in establishing friendships both in the real world and in cyberspace,'' he said during a joint press conference with officials from the security affairs ministry and the customs office who took part in the operation.

One of the agency's deputies, Budi Wibowo, said authorities seized 683,885 grams (0.68 ton) of crystal meth, marijuana, ecstasy, THC, hashish and amphetamines, adding this helped stop them falling into the hands of ''more than 1.3 million people.''

Wibowo also said that drug syndicates have used various methods to distribute narcotics to users via land and sea transportation or mail services.

The seven foreign nationals were an American, two Kazakhs, two Malaysians, an Indian and an Australian, Wibowo said.

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime says Indonesia is a major drug-smuggling hub in part because international drug syndicates target its young population.

In a separate operation, authorities in the province of Riau Island, exposed in May two cases of drug smuggling in its waters and seized 2.7 tons of crystal methamphetamine and 1.2 tons of ketamine, Hukom said Monday.

In 2023, authorities uncovered more than 52,000 of drug cases and confiscated 6.2 tons of crystal meth, 1.1 tons of marijuana and other types of synthetic narcotics, said Mochammad Hasan of the ministry of security affairs during the press conference.

Hasan said the number increased in 2024 with more than 56,000 cases and confiscated 7.5 tons of crystal meth and 3.3 tons of marijuana, with a combine value worth 7.5 trillion rupiah ($454.6 million). Authorities have arrested a total of 27,357 drug suspects by November 2024, he said.

Early this month, three British nationals accused of smuggling nearly a kilogram (over 2 pounds) of cocaine into Indonesia were charged in a court on the tourist island of Bali. They face the death penalty under the country's strict drug laws.

About 530 people, including 96 foreigners, are on death row in Indonesia, mostly for drug-related crimes, the Ministry of Immigration and Corrections' data showed. Indonesia's last executions, of an Indonesian and three foreigners, were carried out in July 2016.