Indonesian authorities seized around two tons of methamphetamine off the coast of Sumatra, the country’s narcotics agency said yesterday, describing it as the largest seizure of drugs in the country’s history.
During a press conference in Batam, Marthinus Hukom, the chief of the National Narcotics Agency (BNN), said that Indonesian personnel intercepted the Indonesian-flagged vessel in waters close to the Riau islands on May 20. It then found the drugs hidden in tea packets that were stored in 67 sacks within a special compartment of the ship’s hull, China’s Xinhua news agency reported.
“The result of the search is two tons of crystal methamphetamine,” BNN chief Marthinus Hukom told a press conference yesterday. He estimated the value of the drugs to be more than $300 million and described it as the “biggest drug discovery in the history of drug eradication in Indonesia.” Four Indonesians and two Thai nationals were apprehended on the ship, he added.
Mathinus said that the bust came after a notification from authorities in Thailand, who said that the fishing vessel, which was sailing from the Andaman Sea to Batam Island, was suspected of carrying a large cargo of illegal narcotics.
According to a report by Reuters, BNN has linked the drugs to a syndicate in the Golden Triangle, the region where the borders of Myanmar, Thailand, and Laos converge, which has been a center of narcotics production for decades. The haul was supposedly destined for Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines.
The record seizure came after Indonesia’s navy impounded a ship carrying nearly two tons of methamphetamine and cocaine in the same region of the Indonesian archipelago in mid-April. According to Reuters, which cited a navy statement, “officers seized nearly 100 yellow and white sacks holding about 1.2 tons of cocaine and 705 kilograms of methamphetamine worth 7 trillion rupiah ($425.92 million).”
The seizures reflect the significant growth in the production of amphetamine-type stimulants over the past decade. In its most recent annual report on the Asian synthetic drug market, released in May of last year, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) reported that seizures of methamphetamine by East and Southeast Asian governments had increased fourfold since 2013, reaching a record of 190 tons in 2023.
According to the UNODC, much of this meth is manufactured in the Golden Triangle, particularly in regions of Myanmar’s Shan State controlled by rebel groups who have established lucrative partnerships with organized crime syndicates. The UNODC also highlighted the increasing sophistication, creativity, and flexibility of organized crime groups operating in the region, which have adapted to law enforcement operations and COVID-19 restrictions alike.
One example it cited was the increased use of maritime trafficking routes, particularly through the Gulf of Thailand and the Andaman Sea, to transport “large quantities of synthetic drugs” to global markets, citing a series of large maritime seizures in 2023 and early 2024, “each weighing one ton or more.”
The UNODC’s next synthetic drugs report for East and Southeast Asia, due for release later this week, will give some indication of whether these trends have continued in the year since. The recent Indonesian seizures certainly offer little reason to believe that there has been a significant improvement.