Joint team seizes 1.3 tonnes of ketamine off Bintan Island
Personnel from the Customs and Excise Directorate General, National Narcotics Agency (BNN), National Police and Navy took part in the interception operation.
A joint operation involving Customs and Excise Directorate General, National Narcotics Agency (BNN), National Police, and Navy officials successfully seized 1.3 tonnes of ketamine off Bintan Island. This interception occurred after three months of cross-country intelligence surveillance. Two vessels, a Customs service 38-meter fast patrol boat and the Navy’s KRI Kerambit Sampari-class 60-meter fast attack missile craft, apprehended the MV King Sun near North Berakit.
The crew, consisting of seven Myanmar nationals and a Taiwanese individual, was detained. The drugs were discovered in a concealed area near the vessel's bridge, after a search utilizing a sniffer dog. Discovered were approximately 1,300 packages of ketamine, weighing a total of 1,300 kilograms. Each package was concealed within 65 boxes of Chinese tea.
Ketamine, a general anesthetic with analgesic and hallucinogenic properties, is utilized medically for anesthesia, depression, and pain management. Acting director of narcotics interdiction at Customs and Excise Directorate General, Erwin Situmorang, stated that the operation commenced in May, following intelligence from Thai authorities.
This intelligence was corroborated through data analysis shared with the National Police regarding the targeted ship's movements in the Bay of Thailand. Situmorang emphasized that the operation's success was a result of observation, intelligence analysis over the past three months, and inter-agency and international cooperation.
Written by urgent.news from The Jakarta Post's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
