While drug raids on shady nightclubs in North and West Jakarta happen fairly regularly, a raid on the MG International Nightclub by the National Narcotics Agency (BNN) revealed much more than clubbers testing positive for drugs or even sellers attempting to move vast quantities of illicit product.
In addition to arresting 120 people for testing positive for drug use at the “discotheque” (as nightclubs are still referred to in the Indonesian media) located on Jalan Tubagus Angke in West Jakarta, officers of the narcotics agency also uncovered an entire laboratory on the fourth floor of the building they say was being used to produce methamphetamines. And they say it had been producing drugs on the premises for years.
“From our initial inspection, this discotheque has produced (narcotics) for 2 years,” said Jakarta BNN chief Johny Pol Latupeirissa on Sunday as quoted in a police press release.
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Johny said the factory produced a form of liquid methamphetamine sold in plastic water bottles. They said that, in addition to those arrested after testing positive for narcotics, they had also arrested several people suspected of being involved in their production.
“Equipment and materials are large enough that we would classify as a factory used to produce drugs of various kinds,” said BNN prosecutor Anjan Pramuka Putra.
A regional regulation on tourism gives the Jakarta Government the power to unilaterally shot down nightlife venues if narcotics have been found there on more than one occasion. This actually marks the first time that drugs have been found during a raid on MG International (despite long being notorious hotspot for narcotics) but due to a production facility being found on site the government is pushing for its immediate closure and the prosecution of its owners and management.
“So we are firm, it will not just be closed but its permit will be immediately revoked and (its owners and management) immediately processed on criminal charges,” Vice Governor Sandiaga Uno said today as quoted by Tribun.
Many Indonesian politicians and officials have declared that the country is in the midst of a drug emergency. Police have estimated there are around 1.2 million drug users in Jakarta.
Human rights activists have warned that the government’s increasingly hardline rhetoric towards drug criminals has led to an increase in police shootings this year.
