More than 800 people were arrested for drug-related offenses in Bali this year, as the number of cases related to illegal narcotics tripled compared to 2020.
According to the latest official data, 838 suspects have been arrested in drug busts in 2021, Mochamad Khozin from the Bali Police’s Drugs Unit said today. While most of them are Indonesian citizens, 22 of the suspects have been identified as foreign nationals.
“This year the dominant cases involved weed — there were so many. This year, in total, there were more [cases] compared to 2020, about three times,” Khozin said.
The COVID-19 pandemic evidently did not slow down drug trafficking in Bali, though Khozin said authorities have largely nabbed smaller fish as no arrests of major traffickers have been made this year.
Police also said some of the drugs had been trafficked from abroad, such as Malaysia.
“[Malaysian drugs] enters Indonesia [through] two routes, [which are] Kalimantan and Sumatra,” Khozin said.
