(9/9/2011)
The State News Agency Antara reports that according to the Deputy for Drugs Eradication at the National Narcotics Agency (BNN), Inspector General Tommy Sagiman, Bali has become a major international gateway for the illicit drug trade.
“In addition,” said Sagiman, “Bali is being used by smugglers as a transit point for narcotics.”
A leader in Indonesia’s war on drugs, Sagiman told a meeting in Bali on Tuesday, September 5, 2011, that drug syndicates are using couriers or "mules" to bring drugs onto the island. In his opinion, however, these efforts at drug smuggling have met effective resistance due to the professionalism and preparedness of Customs officials on duty at Bali’s Ngurah Rai airport.
In order to improve the already high level of enforcement effectiveness in preventing couriers from bringing narcotics into Baii, Sagiman says an improvement in identity recognition systems is needed.
“In addition to a good (identification) system, the quality of staffing needs to be improved and equipped with the latest equipment to detect drug smugglers,” he explained.
The BNN official said the gateways favored by narcotic traffickers in addition to Bali’s Ngurah Rai Airport are the airports of Jakarta (Soekarno Hatta), Polonia Airport in Medan and the seaports of Pulau Bintan and Pulau Batam.
Sagiman said effective control against illegal drug smuggling is stronger at Indonesia’s airports as compared to seaports.
Underlining the pervasiveness of drug use in Indonesian society, BNN estimates nationally that there are a total of 3.6 million drugs users representing 1.9% of the country’s entire population.
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