Indonesia seizes two tonnes of methamphetamine in its biggest drug bust

JAKARTA - The Indonesian authorities seized about two tonnes of methamphetamine off Sumatra island in the biggest seizure of drugs in the country's history, its narcotics agency said on May 26.

The agency linked the drugs to a syndicate in the Golden Triangle – an area where north-eastern Myanmar meets parts of Thailand and Laos, which has a long history of producing drugs for distribution as far as Japan and New Zealand.

Mr Marthinus Hukom, chief of Indonesia’s narcotics agency, told reporters that after five months of surveillance, the authorities last week sent ships to stop a vessel called “Sea Dragon Tarawa” and discovered the methamphetamine in boxes.

Mr Hukom said the drugs were thought to have come from a syndicate in the Golden Triangle and were destined for Indonesia as well as other South-east Asian countries such as Malaysia and the Philippines.

Four Indonesians and two Thai nationals were apprehended on the ship, he said.

“This seizure is the biggest drug discovery in the history of drug eradication in Indonesia,” he said.

The latest seizure comes after Indonesia's navy seized a ship carrying nearly two tons of methamphetamine and cocaine worth US$425 million (S$546 million) around the same area in the west of the archipelago earlier in May.

One Thai national and four Myanmar nationals were also detained.

A record 190 tonnes of methamphetamine was seized

in East and South-east Asia in 2023 as organised crime groups exploited weak law enforcement to traffic drugs, mainly via the Gulf of Thailand, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime said in a 2024 report.

Indonesia has some of the world’s strictest anti-narcotics laws and drug trafficking is punishable by death. REUTERS