Indonesia’s National Narcotics Agency (BNN) has said that the illicit drugs traded in the resort island of Bali are dominated by narcotics originating from transnational Golden Triangle rings.”The drugs traded in Bali are dominated by those of the Golden Triangle rings, followed by the Golden Crescent ones,” BNN head, Commissioner General Petrus Reinhard Golose, informed. The drugs smuggled into the country are mostly methamphetamine, he said at a press conference on money laundering crimes in Denpasar, the capital of Bali province, on Friday. The Golden Triangle is an opium-producing area in Southeast Asia. It comprises Myanmar, Thailand, and Laos. The Crescent Triangle is regarded as the world’s largest opium-producing area and consists of Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iran. The addictive drugs traded in Bali are dominated by those emerging from the Golden Triangle ring, as revealed by laboratory tests and seizures that have confirmed the similarities in their chemical routes and narcotic signatures, Golose said. The Golden Triangle ring’s drug trafficking operations involved a former drug inmate, he added. His initial is identified as MW. The BNN has seized assets worth Rp15 billion from MW that he obtained from drug trades, Golose informed, adding that the suspect led the drug trafficking operations while he was jailed in Bali’s Kerobokan Penitentiary. MW’s drug trafficking operations involved a group of people. Uncovering the drug cases of Golden Triangle syndicates is challenging because the transnational drug rings’ operations in Myanmar, for instance, are conducted by mafias protected by special military units. The Golden Triangle ring’s military units are not only fighting against the government of Myanmar but also systematically controlling the production of addictive drugs and their international markets. “They have more than 40 thousand army personnel. They also have their military academy. They are rebels that have a military force,” he said. He added that the BNN has been collaborating with its partners in other ASEAN countries to stop the Golden Triangle rings’ operations, primarily through the Mekong River and sea. Indonesia’s waters remain vulnerable to the Golden Triangle rings’ drug trafficking operations, he said. Local and transborder drug traffickers have continued to pose a grave threat to Indonesia despite the National Police and BNN’s ongoing fierce crackdowns. The culprits involved in the crime networks vary in socioeconomic and professional backgrounds, with the results of police and BNN investigations revealing that drug offenders can be from any background.

Source: Antara News Agency