Cops suspended, to be retrained after alleged drug use

The Jakarta Post, Jayapura, Tue, September 08 2015,


The Papua Police recently suspended two high-ranking officers after they were allegedly caught possessing and using drugs.

The two police officers were reportedly caught red-handed when using the drugs in a hotel room in Abepura district, Jayapura, two weeks ago, along with two women, one of whom was a civil servant.

Papua Police chief Insp. Gen. Paulus Waterpauw said on Monday that he had received a report about the case and had pledged to give the two officers “firm punishment according to available evidence and the ongoing legal process”.

“This [case] has become a bad example within the police institution and has tarnished our good image,” he said.

Paulus did not reveal the identity of the suspended officers or the type or quantity of drugs allegedly found in their possession.

He, however, confirmed that one of the officers used to serve as a regional police chief in Papua and was the deputy chief of one of the Papua Police’s directorates, while the other used to serve with the Papua Police’s Mobile Brigade (Brimob).

Paulus said the two officers would be immediately sent to the Jayapura State Police School (SPN) for retraining before they went on trial.

“Police personnel who commit a violation will undertake an introduction and police training again. They will carry a backpack and firearm while running together with police cadets undergoing training. They will be given harsh punishment, both in terms of ethical and criminal penalties,” he said.

Separately, the head of the National Narcotics Agency (BNN) in Papua, Jackson Lapalonga, said the institution would team up with the Papua Police to investigate how the illegal drugs came into the hands of the two police officers.

Apart from criminal charges, the officers, according to Jackson, are also facing additional sanctions ranging from rehabilitation to dismissal.

The BNN, according to Jackson, has conducted a series of preventive measures to curb the use of illegal drugs in Papua by, for example, running regular urine tests in government institutions and local schools.

“The BNN are currently treating 186 people [found to have used illegal drugs] after conducting urine tests. They are undergoing either outpatient or inpatient treatment,” he said.

Data from the Papua BNN, for example, showed that 55 people were currently undergoing inpatient treatment at the Jayapura SPN, which also serves as a rehabilitation center for drug addicts.

Soon after he was inaugurated as the country’s seventh president last year, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo pledged that his government would fight unreservedly against the distribution of illegal drugs in the country. The President, for example, ordered two rounds of executions against convicted drug smugglers earlier this year.

Despite the government’s ongoing efforts to curb the distribution of illegal drugs, law enforcers have found that some narcotics users come from within their own institutions.

In January, the Jakarta Police’s narcotics directorate, for example, separately arrested two police officers for illegal drug possession.

Second Insp. Andri Agus Krismantoro, a member of the National Police’s security and intelligence unit, was arrested in Fatmawati, South Jakarta, for possessing 15 grams of methamphetamine in nine ziplock bags, along with electronic scales and a bong.

Chief Brig. Sudirman, a member of the West Jakarta Police’s narcotics unit, was also arrested in a car in a hotel parking lot in West Jakarta with 7,457 ecstasy pills and more than 700 grams of methamphetamine.



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