The Drugs business in Indonesia.

May 28, 2005: an Indonesian court has sentenced Australian Schapelle Corby to 20 years in prison for smuggling 4.1kg (9lb) of marijuana into Bali. The cannabis may have been placed in her bodyboard bag by airport baggage handlers.

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http://www.advokasi.com/lacak/lacak.php?sub=Soeharto&id=10&page=3

George J. Aditjondro has some views on the drugs business and the Suharto family.

Aditjondro points out that Ecstacy has been transported from Jakarta to Australia and to various parts of Indonesia such as Bali.

Jakarta's Hard Rock Cafe and Hai-Lai Discotheque were reportedly major distribution centres.

Sources in Jakarta and several Western media "have pointed their fingers at Suharto's eldest grandson, Ari Haryo Wibowo, also known as Ari Sigit, as the main person behind this illegal drug traffic in Indonesia."

Three Indonesian students were tried in Perth in December 1995 for illegally importing 450 ecstasy tablets.

According to Aditjondro: "During the trial of the Perth trio, allegedly at the request of Ari Sigit, who had specially flown to Perth, they benefited from the best defense council in town. Secondly, the fathers of two suspects in the Perth case were promoted afterwards. The father of Jose Rizal Paruntu, Brig. Gen A.P., then military attaché in New York, received a one star promotion and has become the assistant of the Defense Minister for foreign affairs, since Suharto's last cabinet. The father of Nasar Aliando, R.H. Sumarno,who was then the customs chief in East Timor, received a promotion in the Directorate General of Customs."

A woman called Zarima was caught with 20,000 ecstasy pills. She received "a generous reduction in her sentence".

Col. A.B.R. closed down an ecstasy ring in Jakarta.He "received threatening phone calls from his superiors in the Police and Army".

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/968613.stm

Gusti Maya Noor, the wife of one of Mr Suharto's grandsons, Ari Sigit, was jailed for 8 months for possession of drugs.

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http://www.laksamana.net/vnews.cfm?ncat=45&news_id=5404

On May 24, 2003, Laksamana.Net reported: "The involvement of employees of national airline Garuda Indonesia in ecstasy smuggling is nothing new, and as usual, couriers face imprisonment while the masterminds of the illegal trade remain free. The most recent haul occurred on May 16, when authorities at Jakarta’s Sukarno-Hatta International Airport seized more than 39,000 ecstasy pills smuggled from Amsterdam by a Garuda employee....

"Indonesian courts have been increasingly severe in handing down sentences to foreign drug dealers, although authorities appear reluctant to be equally tough on police and military officials involved in drug dealing.

"Army Special Forces (Kopassus) Second Lieutenant Agus Isrok, ... was arrested in August 1999 at a West Jakarta hotel for possession of 1.6 kilograms of shabu-shabu (crystal methamphetamine), 6,218 ecstasy pills, 27.9 grams of heroin and 25 packets of Valium pills.

"Isrok, the oldest son of former Army chief General Subagyo Hadisiswoyo, was in June 2000 sentenced to four years in prison and fined Rp10 million. But a military high court in November 2000 reduced the sentence to two years in jail and a fine of Rp3 million...

"A source at a Western embassy in Jakarta has told Laksamana.net the Indonesian Embassy in The Hague supplied Garuda staff with diplomatic bags for the smuggling of ecstasy. The source said the alleged mastermind of the ecstasy trafficking operation was none other than Suharto’s super-rich grandson Ari Haryo Wibowo, better known as Ari Sigit Suharto.

"Claims that Indonesian diplomatic bags were being used for ecstasy smuggling by Garuda staff were first reported by Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf...

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http://www.laksamana.net/vnews.cfm?ncat=45&news_id=2675

"Marijuana is one of the main cash crops in Aceh province, northern Sumatra. In fact, Aceh is said to be the second biggest producer of marijuana in southeast Asia. Sources say members of the military, Mobile Brigade (Brimob) police and Free Aceh Movement (GAM) all profit from the province’s marijuana trade."