Police bust drug ring in North Kalimantan prison – Archipelago

In a press conference on Wednesday, the head of the Criminal Investigation Department (Bareskrim), Sr. Comr. Wahyu Widada, said that the detainee, identified only as HS, was believed to have masterminded the drug smuggling operation and also ran a money laundering scheme to cover it up.

Wahyu added that the investigation into HS was launched after the Ministry of Law and Human Rights' General Directorate of Correctional Institutions alerted authorities in October last year that HS “frequently caused trouble” during his time in prison.

HS had already been sentenced to death for drug offences by the Tarakan District Court in April 2018, but on appeal his prison sentence was reduced to 18 years.

“Based on the information available to Bareskrim, we conducted an investigation and found evidence of illegal drug trafficking by the person in question. Although he was in prison, he was still able to carry out drug trafficking activities,” Wahyu said.

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HS was reportedly assisted in the operation by another individual identified only as F, which involved smuggling drugs from Malaysia to North and West Kalimantan provinces before distributing the drugs to other provinces including Sulawesi, Bali and East Java. F is currently on the run from law enforcement.