The pungent aroma of ikan asin (salted fish) is enough to make some people gag, but it was not enough to throw police off the scent of marijuana smugglers who attempted to bring a massive amount of ganja into Jakarta by hiding them in boxes filled with the even more odorous byproduct of salted fish production.
“Their Modus operandi was to put the marijuana inside of a package and then the package would filled with salted fish waste in order to avoid detection by officers, especially our canine units,” said Jakarta Police Brigadier General Purwadi at a press conference yesterday as quoted by Detik.
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Police said they intercepted hundreds of the fishy packages that were being transported by truck from Aceh to a warehouse in Bogor on the afternoon of July 23. Police said they stopped and inspected the truck when it was passing through the Pasar Rebo Toll Gate in East Jakarta.
Six men, including the truck driver and five more alleged members of the smuggling ring, were arrested in connection with the crime.
In addition, the Jakarta Police said they found a connection to two inmates at two different prisons in Sumatra, LP Gintung Cirebon and LP Lampung, who somehow helped organize the shipment from Aceh. They said they were coordinating with officials at the prisons to handle the inmates’ charges.
Police said the ganja was intended for distribution in Jakarta and estimated its street value at IDR3.5 million (US$242) per kilogram so about IDR4.9 billion all together.
The six men arrested in the Greater Jakarta area will be charged with violating several articles under the country’s harsh narcotics laws, but luckily for them the maximum sentences they face under those articles is 20 years in prison.
Another Indonesian man who allegedly was caught smuggling 47 kg of marijuana was sentenced to 15 years in prison and given the death sentence upon appeal. Shortly before his execution in 2015, he promised to haunt all of the people involved in the injustice he had suffered.
