In August, a family of six in the South Sulawesi city of Makassar died in a fire allegedly set by enforcers working for a jailed drug cartel boss. That cartel boss is now dead and police say he took his own life, with his own handcuffs.
“Today, a victim by the name of Akbar alias Ampuh, was found dead in a Makassar Prison isolation room. The incident happened at around 9:00 am this morning,” Wirdhanto Hadicaksono, the head of the Makassar Police criminal investigation unit, told the media from Makassar Prison this morning as quoted by Detik.
Officials say the 32-year-old prisoner, known by his nickname Daeng Ampuh, was found dead in his cell this morning. Police said they were still waiting for the results of an autopsy before declaring an official cause of death but said they suspected he had strangled himself using the chain on his handcuffs.
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Wirdhanto said that Daeng Ampuh had been placed in an isolation cell for continued violations within the prison including resisting officers and running his drug operation while inside the prison.
In August, police arrested five men believed to have been involved in setting the fatal blaze that took the lives of six people in Makassar on Daeng Ampuh’s orders. Based on their investigations and interrogations of the suspects, one of the family members owed Daeng millions of rupiah for several packages of methamphetamine he had purchased.
According to the police’s version of event, Daeng Ampuh ordered his men to collect the debt, but found out the debtor was planning to flee from the city instead. So Daeng ordered the man and his family killed.
Prison officers searched Daeng Ampuh’s cell and confirmed that the convicted drug dealer had four mobile phones hidden inside which he had been using to run his operations from within prison. He was moved to solitary thereafter.
