An Instagram influencer (locally known by the god-awful portmanteau “selebgram”, which combines the words “seleb” for celebrity and “gram” for Instagram) in the Indonesian province of Jambi is seeing his social media presence go up in vapor after he was arrested last week for allegedly selling marijuana.
Police say the suspect, a 22-year-old college student identified as Zarfan, is a local selebgram who has endorsed numerous vape producers, both from Indonesia and abroad, on his Instagram account. One of his latest clients, a liquid vape producer from the UK, allegedly struck a deal with Zarfan to sell marijuana in liquid vape form in Jambi.
“It was the first time that the product in question was sold in Jambi. It had never been sold here before,” Jambi Provincial Police Narcotics Division Director Eka Wahyudianta told reporters yesterday, as quoted by Okezone.
Police say Zarfan agreed to receive USD300 per month for peddling the product in Jambi from the unnamed UK producer.
Zarfan was arrested last week after Customs officers in Jambi detected marijuana being shipped into the province from the UK. Police tracked down the shipping destination to Zarfan’s home and arrested him there.
If convicted of drug smuggling, Zarfan may face up to 20 years in prison, though there is precedent of marijuana smugglers in Indonesia being given the death penalty.
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