Latest news with #UNODC
The Star
2 days ago
- Health
- The Star
Indonesia seizes record US$590mil in meth, uncovers maritime drug route in South-East Asia
JAKARTA: Indonesia is on track to record the largest seizure of drugs by the National Narcotics Agency (BNN) in six years, said the agency's chief, with confiscation of methamphetamine reaching 3.41 tonnes – with a street value of US$590 million – so far in 2025. This half-year haul has surpassed the total annual seizure in the previous five years. The latest raid in the waters off Batam in mid-May netted a record 2.1 tonnes of methamphetamine, a synthetic drug also known as meth. The amount can feed eight million addicts, with each gram typically consumed by four people. BNN confiscated less than a tonne for the whole of 2024, and between 2020 and 2023, annually netted between 1.2 tonnes and 2.8 tonnes, according to government data. Government agencies have also, so far in 2025, seized 2.65 tonnes of other drugs, such as marijuana and cocaine, with a street value of at least $95 million. In an interview on July 3, BNN chief Marthinus Hukom shed light on a drug-trafficking maritime route spanning Malaysia, the Philippines and Taiwan. 'The production was in Myanmar while the vessel was built in Thailand,' said Commissioner-General Marthinus, referring to the meth seizure in May. Large-scale production of meth, combined with an ongoing war in Myanmar since 2021, has driven up the supply of the illicit drug in South-east Asia, said a recent report by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). Seizures of meth across the region were at record highs in 2024, totalling 236 tonnes – a 24 per cent increase compared with the 2023 haul, said UNODC. Meth, a powerful and fast-acting stimulant, can harm a person's heart, teeth and brain if used regularly. It can also cause paranoia, mood swings and memory loss. While there has been a slight decline in drug prevalence in Indonesia, it is still at a worrying level. Marijuana and meth are the two most-used drugs, followed by Ecstasy, ketamine, cocaine and prescription drug abuse. The number of police cases involving arrests of drug offenders in the first 11 months of 2024 stood at 53,672 – up from 50,291 cases in 2023, and 44,983 in 2022, according to government data. Marthinus revealed that for the large meth seizure in May, the drugs had been loaded onto a trade ship in the Andaman Sea off Myanmar. The vessel, Sea Dragon Tarawa, then sailed south through the Malacca Strait to the waters bordering Indonesia and Singapore. It later turned into the South China Sea, cruising off Kalimantan to drop off the meth packages for the Indonesian market, he said. The ship then headed into Philippine and Taiwan waters to unload more drugs. It later looped back to go back into the Andaman Sea, with the trip made several times. It was during one of those regular trips that the ship was caught near Batam, after leaving the Malacca Strait. Data of the trips made was collected by BNN from the vessel's Automatic Identification System satellites. Noting that drug packages sometimes fall off a vessel during trans-shipment, Marthinus said: 'Small boats pick up merchandise from the passing vessel. In the past, local fishermen have found drug packages floating on the sea off North Kalimantan.' The drugs dropped off near Kalimantan were taken to Java and Sulawesi, among other places. According to BNN's analysis, the drugs normally enter Malaysia via boats from Sarawak's capital Kuching and the Philippines through Tawi-Tawi and Mindanao islands. Singapore was not on the delivery list of the Sea Dragon Tarawa. 'We have cut the trade chain for not only Asean countries, but also Taiwan. We expect the drug rings will change their route,' said Marthinus, a former head of Indonesia's anti-terror police squad Detachment 88. Meth in Indonesia is commonly consumed by labourers, plantation workers, drivers and nightlife workers, while marijuana is typically favoured by youth and students. Another synthetic drug, Ecstasy, is commonly used in nightclubs, said BNN. Maturidi Putra, a former drug addict who has been clean for 10 years, said: 'The cure is as simple as returning to the life we had before we became addicted. Avoid the people and environment that led us there in the first place.' The 51-year-old entrepreneur is among scores of people who have returned to a normal life without going through rehabilitation. Denny Bintang, 39, an anti-drug activist who started a 6,400-member Facebook group promoting rehabilitation and campaigning against illicit drugs, told The Straits Times that many addicts are unaware of government facilities that offer free rehabilitation services. 'Many are also afraid to come forward and use the service, thinking they will be arrested,' said Denny, noting there is low awareness that Indonesian law recognises some users as victims, not criminals. He also noted that privately run rehabilitation centres are expensive and not every addict or the family can afford it. The average retail price of meth in Indonesia in 2024 was about US$135 (S$173) per gram, according to UNODC. Prices vary widely across the region, with the lowest prices reported near Myanmar and rising in places farther away. The per-gram street price is US$6 in Myanmar, US$79 in the Philippines, and US$68 in Hong Kong, the UN agency said in a June 26 report. The May raid on the Sea Dragon Tarawa was the result of a five-month intelligence operation, Marthinus said. The six-member crew – four Indonesians and two Thais – were arrested, and 67 cardboard boxes, wrapped in plastic and camouflaged as green tea packages, were seized as evidence. Inside the boxes were 2,000 smaller packages of meth weighing a total of 2.1 tonnes. Similar to a terror network, drug ring leaders target people from poor economic backgrounds to help them expand operations as they are easy to recruit, said Marthinus. 'In the drug operations, they are the sales agents, couriers... We map out the regions in Indonesia that are prone to be recruitment centres. We do our work from there,' he added. Meanwhile, the total number of drug abusers remains a worry, even though the figure has dipped slightly. Indonesian government data shows drug users in the 15 to 64 age group totalled 3.33 million people in 2023, compared with 3.66 million in 2021. Yogo Tri Hendiarto, a criminologist at the University of Indonesia, told ST: 'Demand dictates supply. The large quantity of drugs confiscated this year suggests that demand remains strong in Indonesia and elsewhere, while the country's low prevalence rate indicates that prevention and rehabilitation efforts have been effective.' But he noted that the lower number of drug abusers could be due to weaknesses in survey methodology. - The Straits Times/ANN
Asia News Network
2 days ago
- Health
- Asia News Network
Indonesia seizes US$460 million worth of meth so far in 2025, a six-year record haul
July 22, 2025 JAKARTA – Indonesia is on track to record the largest seizure of drugs by the National Narcotics Agency (BNN) in six years, said the agency's chief, with confiscation of methamphetamine reaching 3.41 tonnes – with a street value of $590 million – so far in 2025. This half-year haul has surpassed the total annual seizure in the previous five years. The latest raid in the waters off Batam in mid-May netted a record 2.1 tonnes of methamphetamine, a synthetic drug also known as meth. The amount can feed eight million addicts, with each gram typically consumed by four people. BNN confiscated less than a tonne for the whole of 2024, and between 2020 and 2023, annually netted between 1.2 tonnes and 2.8 tonnes, according to government data. Government agencies have also, so far in 2025, seized 2.65 tonnes of other drugs, such as marijuana and cocaine, with a street value of at least $95 million. In an interview on July 3, BNN chief Marthinus Hukom shed light on a drug-trafficking maritime route spanning Malaysia, the Philippines and Taiwan. 'The production was in Myanmar while the vessel was built in Thailand,' said Commissioner-General Marthinus, referring to the meth seizure in May. Large-scale production of meth, combined with an ongoing war in Myanmar since 2021, has driven up the supply of the illicit drug in South-east Asia, said a recent report by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). Seizures of meth across the region were at record highs in 2024, totalling 236 tonnes – a 24 per cent increase compared with the 2023 haul, said UNODC. Meth, a powerful and fast-acting stimulant, can harm a person's heart, teeth and brain if used regularly. It can also cause paranoia, mood swings and memory loss. While there has been a slight decline in drug prevalence in Indonesia, it is still at a worrying level. Marijuana and meth are the two most-used drugs, followed by Ecstasy, ketamine, cocaine and prescription drug abuse. The number of police cases involving arrests of drug offenders in the first 11 months of 2024 stood at 53,672 – up from 50,291 cases in 2023, and 44,983 in 2022, according to government data. Mr Marthinus revealed that for the large meth seizure in May, the drugs had been loaded onto a trade ship in the Andaman Sea off Myanmar. The vessel, Sea Dragon Tarawa, then sailed south through the Malacca Strait to the waters bordering Indonesia and Singapore. It later turned into the South China Sea, cruising off Kalimantan to drop off the meth packages for the Indonesian market, he said. The ship then headed into Philippine and Taiwan waters to unload more drugs. It later looped back to go back into the Andaman Sea, with the trip made several times. It was during one of those regular trips that the ship was caught near Batam, after leaving the Malacca Strait. Data of the trips made was collected by BNN from the vessel's Automatic Identification System satellites. Noting that drug packages sometimes fall off a vessel during trans-shipment, Mr Marthinus said: 'Small boats pick up merchandise from the passing vessel. In the past, local fishermen have found drug packages floating on the sea off North Kalimantan.' The drugs dropped off near Kalimantan were taken to Java and Sulawesi, among other places. According to BNN's analysis, the drugs normally enter Malaysia via boats from Sarawak's capital Kuching and the Philippines through Tawi-Tawi and Mindanao islands. Singapore was not on the delivery list of the Sea Dragon Tarawa. 'We have cut the trade chain for not only Asean countries, but also Taiwan. We expect the drug rings will change their route,' said Mr Marthinus, a former head of Indonesia's anti-terror police squad Detachment 88. Meth in Indonesia is commonly consumed by labourers, plantation workers, drivers and nightlife workers, while marijuana is typically favoured by youth and students. Another synthetic drug, Ecstasy, is commonly used in nightclubs, said BNN. Mr Maturidi Putra, a former drug addict who has been clean for 10 years, said: 'The cure is as simple as returning to the life we had before we became addicted. Avoid the people and environment that led us there in the first place.' The 51-year-old entrepreneur is among scores of people who have returned to a normal life without going through rehabilitation. Mr Denny Bintang, 39, an anti-drug activist who started a 6,400-member Facebook group promoting rehabilitation and campaigning against illicit drugs, told The Straits Times that many addicts are unaware of government facilities that offer free rehabilitation services. 'Many are also afraid to come forward and use the service, thinking they will be arrested,' said Mr Denny, noting there is low awareness that Indonesian law recognises some users as victims, not criminals. He also noted that privately run rehabilitation centres are expensive and not every addict or the family can afford it. The average retail price of meth in Indonesia in 2024 was about US$135 (S$173) per gram, according to UNODC. Prices vary widely across the region, with the lowest prices reported near Myanmar and rising in places farther away. The per-gram street price is US$6 in Myanmar, US$79 in the Philippines, and US$68 in Hong Kong, the UN agency said in a June 26 report. The May raid on the Sea Dragon Tarawa was the result of a five-month intelligence operation, Mr Marthinus said. The six-member crew – four Indonesians and two Thais – were arrested, and 67 cardboard boxes, wrapped in plastic and camouflaged as green tea packages, were seized as evidence. Inside the boxes were 2,000 smaller packages of meth weighing a total of 2.1 tonnes. Similar to a terror network, drug ring leaders target people from poor economic backgrounds to help them expand operations as they are easy to recruit, said Mr Marthinus. 'In the drug operations, they are the sales agents, couriers… We map out the regions in Indonesia that are prone to be recruitment centres. We do our work from there,' he added. Meanwhile, the total number of drug abusers remains a worry, even though the figure has dipped slightly. Indonesian government data shows drug users in the 15 to 64 age group totalled 3.33 million people in 2023, compared with 3.66 million in 2021. Mr Yogo Tri Hendiarto, a criminologist at the University of Indonesia, told ST: 'Demand dictates supply. The large quantity of drugs confiscated this year suggests that demand remains strong in Indonesia and elsewhere, while the country's low prevalence rate indicates that prevention and rehabilitation efforts have been effective.' But he noted that the lower number of drug abusers could be due to weaknesses in survey methodology.
Straits Times
3 days ago
- Straits Times
Indonesia seizes $590m worth of drugs so far in 2025, a six-year record haul
Find out what's new on ST website and app. – Indonesia is on track to record the largest drug seizures by the National Narcotics Agency (BNN) in six years, said its chief, with confiscation of methamphetamine reaching 3.41 tonnes, with a street value of $590 million, so far in 2025 . This half-year haul surpassed the total annual seizure in the previous five years. The latest raid in the waters off Batam in mid-May 2025 netted a record 2.1 tonnes of methamphetamine, a synthetic drug also known as meth. The amount can feed eight million meth addicts, with each gram typically consumed by four people. BNN confiscated less than a tonne for the whole of 2024, and between 2020 and 2023 annually netted between 1.2 and 2.8 tonnes, according to government data. Government agencies have also, so far in 2025 , seized 2.65 tonnes of other drugs, such as marijuana and cocaine, with a street value of at least $95 million. In an interview on July 3, BNN chief Marthinus Hukom shed light on a drug-trafficking maritime route spanning Malaysia, the Philippines and Taiwan. 'The production was in Myanmar while the vessel was built in Thailand,' said Commissioner-General Marthinus, referring to the meth seizure in May. Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. Business $1.1 billion allocated to three fund managers to boost Singapore stock market: MAS Singapore Risk of flash floods in parts of central and eastern Singapore: PUB Singapore Malaysia-bound motorists urged to avoid Tuas Second Link on July 23 due to chemical spill exercise Singapore Trial of new dengue vaccine begins recruitment for child participants in Singapore Singapore Mandai Wildlife Group group CEO Mike Barclay to retire; Bennett Neo named as successor Singapore Fresh charge for woman who harassed nurse during pandemic, created ruckus at lion dance competition Singapore Witness stand not arena for humiliation in sex offence cases, judge reminds lawyers Asia Japan PM Ishiba under siege after ruling coalition loses Upper House majority Large-scale production of meth , combined with an ongoing war in Myanmar from 2021 have driven up the supply of the illicit drug in South-east Asia, said a recent report by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). Seizures of meth across the region were at record highs in 2024, totalling 236 tonnes, or a 24 per cent increase compared with the 2023 haul, said UNODC. Meth, a powerful and fast-acting stimulant, can harm a person's heart, teeth and brain if used regularly. It can also cause paranoia, mood swings and memory loss. In Indonesia, drug prevalence has remained at a worrying level despite a slight decline nationwide . Marijuana and meth are the two most-used drugs, followed by Ecstasy, ketamine, cocaine and prescription drug abuse. The number of police cases involving arrests of drug offenders in the first 11 months of 2024 was recorded at 53,672, up from 50,291 cases in 2023 and 44,983 in 2022, according to government data. Mr Marthinus revealed the meth seized in May was loaded on a trade ship in the Andaman Sea off Myanmar. The vessel, the Sea Dragon Tarawa, then sailed south through the Malacca Strait to the waters bordering Indonesia and Singapore. It later turned into the South China Sea, cruising off Kalimantan to drop off the meth packages for the Indonesian market, he said. The ship then entered Philippine and Taiwan waters to unload more drugs. Noting that drug packages sometimes fell off the vessel during trans-shipment, Mr Marthinus said: 'Small boats pick up merchandise from the passing vessel. In the past, local fishermen have found drug packages floating on the sea off North Kalimantan.' The ship later returned to the Andaman Sea for reloading, he added, citing data BNN collected from Automatic Identification System satellites on the vessel . The drugs dropped off near Kalimantan were later taken to Java and Sulawesi, among other places. According to BNN's analysis, the drugs normally enter Malaysia via boats from Sarawak's capital Kuching and the Philippines through Tawi-Tawi and Mindanao islands. Singapore was not on the delivery list of the Sea Dragon Tarawa. 'We have cut the trade chain for not only Asean countries but also Taiwan. We expect the drug rings will change their route,' said Mr Marthinus, a former head of Indonesia's anti-terror police squad Detachment 88. Meth in Indonesia is commonly consumed by labourers, plantation workers, drivers and nightlife workers, while marijuana is typically favoured by youth and students. Another synthetic drug, Ecstasy, is commonly used in nightclubs, said BNN . Mr Maturidi Putra, a former drug addict who has been clean for 10 years, said: 'The cure is as simple as returning to the life we had before we became addicted. Avoid the people and environment that led us there in the first place.' The entrepreneur, 51, is among scores of people who managed to return to a normal life without going through rehabilitation. Mr Denny Bintang , 39, an anti-drug activist who started a 6,400-member Facebook group promoting rehabilitation and campaigning against illicit drug, told The Straits Times many addicts are unaware of government facilities that offer free rehabilitation services. 'Most of them are afraid to come forward and use this service thinking they would be arrested,' said Mr Denny, noting there is low awareness that Indonesian law recognises some users as victims , not criminals. He also noted that privately run rehabilitation centres are expensive and not every addict or the family can afford it. The average retail price of meth in Indonesia in 2024 was about US$135 per gram (S$173), according to UNODC. But prices vary widely across the region, with the lowest prices reported near Myanmar and rising in places farther away. The per-gram street price is US$6 in Myanmar, US$79 in the Philippines and US$68 in Hong Kong, the UN agency said in a June 26 report. The May raid was a result of a five-month intelligence operation, Mr Marthinus said. The Sea Dragon Tarawa's six-member crew – four Indonesians and two Thais – were arrested, with evidence comprising 67 cardboard boxes, wrapped in plastic and camouflaged as green tea packages. Inside the boxes were 2,000 smaller packages of meth totalling 2.1 tonnes. Similar to a terror network, drug ring leaders target people from poor economic backgrounds to help them expand operations as they are easy to recruit, said Mr Marthinus. 'In the drug operations, they are the sales agents, couriers... We map out the regions in Indonesia that are prone to be recruitment centres. We do our work from there,' he added. Meanwhile, the total number of drug abusers remains a worry despite dipping slightly . Indonesia government data shows drug users in the 15 to 64 age group totalled 3.33 million people in 2023, compared with 3.66 million in 2021 . 'Demand dictates supply. The large quantity of drugs confiscated this year suggests that demand remains strong in Indonesia and elsewhere, while the country's low prevalence rate indicates that prevention and rehabilitation efforts have been effective,' Mr Yogo Tri Hendriarto, a criminologist at the University of Indonesia, told ST. But he noted that the lower number of drug abusers could be due to weaknesses in survey methodology.
Scoop
4 days ago
- Scoop
As War Rages On In Ukraine, Organised Crime Is Taking New Forms
Since February 2022, both legal and illegal economies in Ukraine have been severely disrupted by the war. The report examines the evolution of organised crime structures in the country and focuses on six distinct areas: drug trafficking and production, online scams and fraud, arms trafficking, economic crime, trafficking in persons, and the facilitation of illegal exit and draft evasion. 'The war has not only inflicted untold suffering on the Ukrainian people, but has also triggered a marked evolution in organised crime – which can have profound implications for the country's journey towards recovery and reconstruction,' said Angela Me, Chief of Research and Analysis at UNODC. Drug trafficking While the trafficking of cocaine and heroin through Ukraine has decreased drastically since 2022, the production and trafficking of synthetic drugs such as cathinones and methadone have increased. The expansion of cathinone trafficking in recent years has been facilitated by the darknet, notably through market platforms such as Hydra, which was dismantled in April 2022. Regarding methadone, the report noted that most of the Ukrainian production is trafficked within the country and not abroad, as domestic demand for the drug is on the rise. Arms trafficking The war has also increased the availability of weapons in the country, notably due to a massive influx of arms from the battlefield. This surplus is resulting in a rise in arms seizures and violence among civilians, marked notably by an increase in domestic and intimate partner violence. Although there is no evidence to suggest large-scale arms trafficking outside Ukraine, UNODC highlighted the importance of monitoring the situation in light of the sheer number of weapons available and the historic regional presence of criminal actors specialising in arms trafficking. While there is, as of now, no evidence of drones being used in a non-military context, civilian drones and 3D-printed components for frontline attacks could fuel new illicit markets, the report found. Trafficking in persons As roughly 14 million people have been displaced by the war, some criminal groups have exploited these populations by luring them into shelters or accommodations disguised as humanitarian assistance providers, where they are subjected to forced labour. While intensified patrolling of the borders, paired with the near-complete closure of the eastern and north-eastern borders, has limited the smuggling of migrants through Ukraine, traffickers have instead turned to facilitating draft evasion by Ukrainian men. 'Curtailing organised crime is a key requirement for achieving sustainable peace, justice, national security and the protection of human rights,' said Matthias Schmale, UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Ukraine, as the global body stands ready to support the country in this critical work.
The Diplomat
5 days ago
- Business
- The Diplomat
FATF is Behind the Curve on Cambodia's Cyber-scam Compounds
According to the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime, Cambodia-based scamming operations are generating billions of dollars in illicit profits each year. The global Financial Action Task Force (FATF) watchdog has yet to publicly grasp the dangers posed by the growth of cyber-scam compounds, including converted casinos, in Cambodia since the COVID-19 pandemic. Financial controls at Cambodian casinos were identified as an area of concern by the Paris-based FATF in a mutual evaluation report as far back as 2017. The report found that the Cambodian sectors most vulnerable to money laundering were casinos, along with the real estate, legal, and remittance and banking sectors, due to a lack of regulatory supervision. The FATF added Cambodia to its 'grey list' in February 2019, but removed the country from the list in February 2023. Yet a further mutual evaluation report in August 2023 found that: 'Weaknesses remain with fit and proper tests of casinos, lawyers, and accountants.' This was no simple loophole. The U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) estimates that cyber-enabled fraud caused financial losses of between $18 billion and $37 billion in 2023, most of it due to scams by organized crime groups in Southeast Asia. Cambodia, along with Myanmar, is a major scamming hub. UNODC in January 2024 reported that COVID-19 led to the repurposing of Cambodian casinos into cyber-scam compounds as regular business dried up. Yet Cambodia and other countries in the region, according to UNODC, 'pay virtually no attention' to casino junket operators, despite 'widespread misuse of these businesses for large-scale money laundering and underground banking by transnational organized crime groups.' I recently interviewed FATF president Elisa de Anda Madrazo for the Financial Times publication 'Banking Risk and Regulation.' She pointed to cases of the authorities in Cambodia and Malaysia cooperating to make arrests of members of organized crime gangs suspected of human trafficking. Such arrests have not been enough to dent the capacity of the compounds. In April 2025, the UNODC found periods of increased law enforcement activity in Cambodia have 'dampened the expansion of these industries in some more visible and accessible locations' but have also prompted 'significant expansion in more remote locations.' De Anda Madrazo said that Cambodia's next assessment will start 'in the next few years' and will assess how it is dealing with 'emerging threats.' Cyber-scam compounds in Cambodia and the region could fairly be classified as an established, rather than an emerging, danger. De Anda Madrazo herself said that 'cyber-enabled fraud is a major transnational organized crime that has grown exponentially in recent years.' Nigel Morris-Cotterill, a financial crime risk strategist based in Malaysia, argues that routine corruption needs to move up the agenda. Financial crime, he says, 'happens in large part because of corruption. And it persists because of lack of resources, especially in countries which have poorly paid law enforcement.' The basic police salary in Cambodia in 2024 stood at 1,306,550 riel ($326) per month. As in many other poor countries, bribes of all kinds are routinely taken to increase income. Police corruption in Cambodia is part of the much broader issue of the rule of law. The 2024 World Justice Project Rule of Law Index puts Cambodia at 141 out of 142 countries globally. The existence of industrial-scale cyber-scamming increases the possibilities for police on low pay. Amnesty International last month documented 20 cases of compounds in Cambodia which were the subject of one or more police and/or military interventions, but found that human rights abuses continued at the compounds even after the visits. When the police or military intervened, they would rescue only a small number of individuals in response to specific requests for help. The 'rescues' were largely controlled by scamming compound bosses, and were nothing like a 'raid.' The police would typically meet a boss at the gate, who would hand over the pre-requested individual. Amnesty also found evidence of collusion between police and compound bosses prior to the raids. In one case, two trafficked victims were moved immediately before a government 'crackdown' in Sihanoukville. There was no rush by the police to help the 'rescued' victims. Most survivors of scamming compounds interviewed by Amnesty spent two to three months in police detention centers, without being questioned in detail about their experiences. Some victims have reported that the police were willing to sell them back to the compounds for the right price. Low-level corruption, Morris-Cotterill says, receives little attention from the FATF. The reason, he says, is that 'there's no money in pursuing it: the entire counter-money laundering approach changed in the early 2000s from being a crime reduction measure to being about confiscation.' 'If policing is all about expenditure and revenue, which is what confiscation has come to be about, then policing has become a business, not a public service. This, as much as corruption, is a reason that crime is not deterred or detected.' De Anda Madrazo argued that being taken off the grey list doesn't make a country immune to financial crime. Morris-Cotterill sees a need for the FATF to rethink how it approaches the problem. 'The little stuff doesn't matter in the big policy-making forums,' he said. 'I find that disturbing.'
