A tale of Aceh’s prolonged war on drugs

Mount Seulawah in Seulimeum and Lembah Seulawah Subdistricts, Aceh Besar District, Aceh Province, does not merely offer sensational surroundings and a natural waterfall for tourists wanting to return to nature.

Behind the charm and fresh air this 1,810- meter-high volcano, the slopes of the mountain stay susceptible to the cultivation of marijuana plants.

On October 22, 2020, for instance, the National Narcotics Company (BNN)- Aceh Office ruined 3.5 hectares of marijuana plantation on the mountain’s slope in Lamteuba area of Aceh Besar District.

Helped by local cops and military workers, tens of BNN officers rooted out countless marijuana plants cultivated on a damaged forest website, and burned them.

BNN-Aceh Workplace Head Heru Pranoto said damaging the marijuana plantation on among the Mount Seulawah slopes belonged to the Aceh police’ war on drugs.

The BNN officers have repeatedly ruined cannabis cultivation in Aceh over this past year,” Pranoto said.

Local residents’ involvement by providing tip-offs to BNN officers has helped them find the cannabis plants which are always cultivated in separated locations.

Marijuana is simply among the illicit drugs that drug traffickers in Aceh have actually typically transferred to other Indonesian provinces.

Cannabis, they also attempt to smuggle crystal methamphetamine into Aceh from Malaysia to be traded within and outside the province.

Within a month, Aceh police officers launched 2 drug raid operations in East Aceh District, resulting in the seizure of 141 kgs of crystal meth and the arrest of 15 thinks, according to Aceh Authorities Chief Inspector General Wahyu Widada.

2 other thought drug dealers were assassinated after they threatened the polices trying to arrest them.

Widada highlighted that all drug dealers collared in Aceh will be charged with violating Indonesia’s 2009 Narcotics Law and Countermeasure and Removal of Money Laundering (TPPU) Law.

Under the TPPU Law, the wealth of the arrested drug lords might be taken to avoid them from performing their illicit drug businesses.

Implementation of the TPPU Law in the Aceh authorities’s war on drugs is aimed at breaking the chain of drug trafficking networks, he kept in mind, including that the drug lords had messed up the lives of Acehnese youngsters through their unpardonable acts.

” Much of them sign up with the drug ring. Abusing illicit drugs may potentially activate other criminal activities,” Widada warned.

Associated news: Aceh drug dealerships charged with breaching narcotics, TPPU laws: authorities

To curtail multinational drug trafficking activities, the Aceh police continue to intensify patrols in the waters of the province’s eastern seaside locations.

” Aceh’s eastern seaside locations have numerous routes and small ports prone to smuggling activities of illicit drugs, particularly crystal methamphetamine,” Wahyu Widada said.

The province’s eastern coastline has actually regularly been used by multinational drug syndicates as their entry points for smuggling illegal drug packages into Indonesia.

Hence, intensifying marine patrols is deemed critical to break the supply chain of illicit drugs from overseas. In this way, the Aceh police can conserve Acehnese youth from getting siphoned into the vicious circle of drug dependency, he remarked.

To crack down on drug rings, nevertheless, the Aceh authorities could not work single-handedly.

Instead, forging synergy with other associated government firms is the pressing need of the hour on account of Aceh Province’s huge eastern shoreline and proximity to neighboring countries’ borderlines, he stated.

A strong collaboration and synergy of all associated police and local federal governments as required by Aceh Police Chief Inspector General Wahyu Widada is so essential for Indonesia’s successful fight against drug crimes and drug addiction.

Indonesia stays under serious threat from drug dealerships, who view the nation as a prospective market. The worth of drug sell Indonesia is estimated to have actually reached a minimum of Rp66 trillion.

In resolving this challenging truth, the Indonesian government has actually continued to take severe punitive action versus drug kingpins smuggling and trading drugs in the country over the past few decades.

As just recently revealed by National Police Chief General Idham Azis, district courts in various parts of Indonesia had actually even granted capital punishment to at least 100 drug transgressors in the very first half of 2020.

Not only that. Indonesian President Joko Widodo had actually even provided shoot-at-sight orders against drug kingpins.

However, this has actually stopped working to deter drug traffickers, who deal with Indonesia as one of their crucial markets, even as Indonesian police continue to wage a fight against them.

The reality should be viewed by both government and other stakeholders of the country as a require a prolonged war, however all of us must convince ourselves that, at the end, we are going to win the fight versus the drug kingpins.

Associated news: Police ward off attempt to smuggle 81 kg of drugs from Malaysia


Related news: BNN Aceh seized 2.47 tons methamphetamine since 2017

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