A massive drug bust went down in Bali, where 600,000 cold relief tablets that contained a key ingredient for making illicit drugs were intercepted on the Indonesian island.
While the smuggling attempt was thwarted earlier this year in January, Bali Customs just made an announcement about the operation to the press on Monday.
Known as drug precursors, the tablets had the raw material for producing methamphetamine and ecstasy.
The shipment was on its way to Australia from South Korea, when a joint team of officers from Ngurah Rai Customs and the Australian Border Force (ABF) detected the smuggling attempt.
The tablets had reportedly been divided into six boxes and destined for three different addresses. Each box contained 100 bottles of the medicine, Codana.
In the packages’ documentation, the contents were listed as “health food,” bust Customs lab tests in Surabaya on January 14, 2018 confirmed otherwise.
“The lab tests confirmed that the tablet consisted of 60 mg of HCL Pseudophedrine and 2.5 mg of Tripolidine HCL, both which are used as raw materials for ecstasy and meth,” Director General of Bali Customs, Heru Pambudi told reporters on Monday.
“We are only just now revealing it because the investigation is still ongoing in Australia,” Pambudi said, as quoted by VIVA News.
It was also revealed at the press conference that one person has already been arrested in Australia and is being tried.
“We cannot offer an any more complete identity, because they are currently under investigation and prosecution,” explained Southeast Asia Regional Director of ABF, Chris Waters, who was also at the press conference.
Smuggling these particular precursors is a new mode of drug trafficking in Bali, says head of the Bali division of the Indonesian National Narcotics Agency (BNN), I Ketut Arta.
However, BNN has found people getting creative with other materials in the country.
“The ingredients of making narcotics in Indonesia are very numerous. There are even cases where battery water has been used.”
The intercepted haul contained 80 percent of the necessary material to make meth or ecstasy, says Arta.
As an international tourism destination, Bali is indeed a major target for drug trafficking and an occasional point of transit, Arta added.
Based on records from the Ngurah Rai Customs Office, in the first six months of 2018, there have been 30 narcotics cases successfully uncovered at the Ngurah Rai International Airport. Types of drugs involved include marijuana, heroin, hashish, and cocaine.
Perpetrators of the drug smuggling have come from England, Malaysia, Germany, and Indonesia.
“As Bali becomes the world’s number one tourist destination, Bali is also the main destination of the drug market in Indonesia,” Arta said.
Reader Interactions