ALBAWABA - Aboard a Tanzanian-flagged vessel sailing from Malaysia through the Andaman Sea, Indonesian authorities discovered 2.6 tons of liquid methamphetamine being smuggled into the country.
The bust, which is one of the country’s biggest, led to the arrest of 10 of the crew members, all Myanmar nationals, and the recovery of the narcotics along with 1.5 million illegal cigarettes on board.
Indonesia’s National Narcotics Agency said that it had intelligence of the ship sailing from Malaysia and planned a joint operation with customs officials, intercepting the MV Rain Maker (fake name) late Monday near Bengkalis in Riau province.
"The inspection of the vessel found 2.6 tonnes of methamphetamine, or liquid meth, stored in eight water barrels and a water tank," narcotics agency official Roy Hardi Siahaan said.
Far from being an isolated incident, earlier this month on August 8th, Indonesian authorities seized 1.3 tons of Ketamine from a ship in the Riau Islands near Singapore.
A year before, in what was hailed as Indonesia’s biggest drug bust, Indonesian authorities seized two tons of crystal meth from a fishing boat which was sailing from the Andaman Sea to Batam Island.
Indonesia’s strong anti-drug stance is reflected in its death penalty for traffickers – though it maintains a moratorium on executions.
