The Jakarta Globe, Aug 13, 2014
Jakarta. Four people died after drinking bootleg alcohol in the West Java city of Bekasi on Monday, police said.
A spokesman of the Babelan Police precinct in Bekasi, Brig. Anwar Fadillah, said a group of men was seen drinking bootleg alcohol in front of a shophouse in Karangsatria village on Monday night.
Anwar said four men died later that night, while one more victim was still undergoing treatment at Anna Medika hospital in Bekasi.
“All victims lived in the Babelan subdistrict,” he said.
Anwar said authorities could not perform autopsies on the deceased because their families had already buried them and elected not to report their deaths to the police.
“One of the victims, Rino, said they were mixing the alcohol with a sex-enhancing supplement, we are still investigating whether they mixed other ingredients with the alcohol,” Anwar said.
Anwar said the victims bought the drink from a local vendor not far from the shophouse.
Deaths from drinking improperly prepared alcohol are ubiquitous in Indonesia, where the high price of regulated alcohol leads many people to look for a cheaper alternative. In January this year at least 19 people died in East Java after drinking bootleg alcohol.
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wo 13 aug 2014 - 22:54