Economic desperation drives people to do crazy things. Take, for example, a recent police report about a criminal they are calling AMN who happens to be an 85-year-old woman living in the Tanah Tinggi neighborhood of Johar Baru in Central Jakarta.
Police caught her with 0.55 grams of crystal meth in her home on Wednesday afternoon. AMN told the authorities she was forced to become a drug dealer because of economic problems.
“According to the suspect, the pressure of economic hardship forced her to sell methamphetamines. Indeed, AMN lived alone in a house measuring just 4 x 4 square meters,” said Central Jakarta Police Adj. Superintendent Robert Sitinjak, as quoted by Kompas.
The little old lady was arrested after her neighbors “narced” on her to the police.
“There were some people who came to the police station to complain that there was drug trafficking in the area,” Robert said.
In addition to 0.55 grams of methamphetamines seized, police also found cash amounting to Rp 200,000. Police said they are still pursuing AMN’s drug supplier.
“The money is the remainder of the sale. The owner of the goods has been identified as Husen, who is also a neighbor of AMN. Husen is still at large and we are in pursuit. Until now, AMN has resisted further questioning,” Robert concluded.
Selling methamphetamines is obviously a bad thing, but we must also question why an 85-year-old woman, would start selling drugs. She lived alone and so presumably did not have a family to support her. Without any sort of governmental social security program to protect the elderly, her options were surely quite limited.
