East Java Police kill suspected drug dealer attempting gun assault

Surabaya, E Java (ANTARA) - East Java police launched a crackdown on a local drug ring and killed suspected drug dealer Vicky Erdianto, 25, Monday, to stop assault with his gun, Surabaya Police Chief Sen. Coms. Jhonny Eddison Isir stated.

Erdianto was shot dead after seizing the gun he had attempted to use for attacking the policemen escorting him to a place where he had stored a crystal methamphetamine package in the Porong neighborhood area of Sidoarjo District, he informed journalists here on Monday evening.

Isir affirmed that Erdianto had a criminal record since he was jailed at the Pamekasan Penitentiary in East Java Province in connection with a drug case.

The drug raid operation also resulted in the arrests of four other members of the local drug syndicate. The suspects, only identified by their initials as AA (23), VV (20), JR (23), and DM (27), are all residents of Surabaya, the capital of East Java Province.

The cops also seized two kilograms of crystal methamphetamine from the suspects, he noted, adding that the drug package might have been smuggled from mainland China into the Indonesian island of Sumatra through Malaysia.

"The drug package is then transported from Sumatra Island to Surabaya, East Java," he remarked.

The probe into the case by police investigators is still underway to find links to other drug rings since the East Java police are stepping up surveillance on operations to smuggle illicit drug packages from the Middle East, including Iran, he revealed.

Domestic and transnational drug dealers perceive Indonesia as a potential market based on its vast population and millions of drug users. Drug trade in the nation is valued at nearly Rp66 trillion.

People from all sections of society are falling prey to drugs regardless of their socio-economic and professional backgrounds.

Those from the country's entertainment industry have also been siphoned into this drug crisis, as is apparent from the arrests of several entertainers over consumption and also trade of illicit drugs.

In the wake of the serious threat posed by drug lords, National Narcotics Agency (BNN) Chief Commissioner General Heru Winarko sought capital punishment for those involved in drug trade in the country.

National Police Chief General Idham Azis recently highlighted that district courts in different parts of Indonesia had awarded capital punishment to at least 100 drug offenders in the first half of 2020.

"May they soon be executed by firing squads to deter others," he stressed while bearing witness to the National Police special task force’s move to destroy 1.2 tons of crystal methamphetamine, 35 thousand ecstasy pills, and 410 kilograms of marijuana in Jakarta on July 2, 2020.