Indonesia seizes over two tonnes of ketamine and meth in back-to-back raids

National police chief Suyudi Ario Seto announced that a joint police-customs team halted the tanker MT Global 168 in the Strait of Malacca as it headed toward Malaysia, bringing it to Belawan Port for a search that uncovered 58 sacks of ketamine hydrochloride totaling 1.16 tonnes. The vessel, sailing under a Mongolian flag but owned by a Johor Bahru company, had been monitored since August. Eight crew members were taken into custody, including seven Indonesians and one Taiwanese, and the haul was valued at roughly Rp3.48 trillion.

The following day, officers raided a clandestine liquid meth lab in Aceh's Pidie Regency, seizing 1.2 tonnes of meth estimated at Rp2.16 trillion, and arrested eleven suspects—nine Indonesians and two Chinese. Indonesia maintains some of the world’s strictest drug laws, including the death penalty, though executions have been on hold for years.