Despite having stringent drug laws and occasionally executing convicted smugglers, Indonesia remains a significant center for drug trafficking in South-East Asia.

Marthinus Hukom, the head of the National Narcotic Agency, reported that the crackdown spanned from April to June across 20 provinces, revealing money laundering by two drug syndicates and leading to the seizure of assets valued at over 26 billion rupiah (approximately $2.4 million).

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime says Indonesia is a major drug-smuggling hub in part because international drug syndicates target its young population.

In a separate operation, authorities in the province of Riau Island exposed in May two cases of drug smuggling in its waters and seized 2.7 tonnes of crystal methamphetamine and 1.2 tonnes of ketamine, Hukom said Monday.

In 2023, authorities uncovered more than 52,000 of drug cases and confiscated 6.2 tonnes of crystal meth, 1.1 tonnes of marijuana and other types of synthetic narcotics, said Mochammad Hasan of the ministry of security affairs during the press conference.

Hasan said the number increased in 2024 with more than 56,000 cases and confiscated 7.5 tonnes of crystal meth and 3.3 tonnes of marijuana, with a combine value worth 7.5 trillion rupiah ($711.2 million). Authorities have arrested a total of 27,357 drug suspects by November 2024, he said.

Earlier this month, three British nationals accused of smuggling nearly a kilogram of cocaine into Indonesia were charged in a court on the tourist island of Bali. They face the death penalty under the country’s strict drug laws.

About 530 people, including 96 foreigners, are on death row in Indonesia, mostly for drug-related crimes, the Ministry of Immigration and Corrections’ data showed. Indonesia’s last executions, of an Indonesian and three foreigners, were carried out in July 2016.

– Reported with Associated Press