JakartaPost-Oct 27
Officers from various agencies intercepted the Mongolian-flagged tanker MT Global 168 which sailed from Malaysia carrying 1.16 tons of ketamine worth some Rp 3.48 trillion (US$192 million) in Malacca Strait. Eight ship crew members were detained, mostly Indonesians with a Chinese crew member. National Police chief Gen. Suyudi Ario Seto said the unraveling of the smuggling attempt started from intelligence surveillance on anomalies with the MT Global 168’s movement. He said analysts from the National Narcotics Agency (BNN) and the Customs and Excise Directorate General had monitored the ship since August. He added the ship’s identity was revealed from docking documents found on board the impounded Phu Sanh Singharaj vessel. “Previously we seized 800 kilograms of ketamine onboard Phu Sanh Singharaj, where we tracked the trace of MT Global 168,” he told a press conference at Belawan Port in Medan city on Friday. “The tanker departed from
docking in Pasir Gudang, Johor state, Malaysia, heading to Andaman Sea in September through Port Klang in Selangor state, Malaysia, to refill fresh water and fuel.” After several days in Port Klang, the tanker continued its voyage to Andaman Sea to conduct ship-to-ship transfer of ketamine. “This is the modus operandi often taken by smugglers,” he said. “They come from various countries and conducted transactions in the Andaman Sea or Malacca Strait using the ship-to-ship transfer scheme.” He added the analysts were convinced that the MT Global 168 conducted a ship-to-ship transaction on the Andaman Sea in the second week of October. The confidence was strengthened by the ship crew’s action of turning off the automatic identification system (AIS). Smugglers usually turn AIS off when conducting transactions. This action, however, is a clue for law enforcers to read suspicious ship movements. “MT Global 168 turned off its AIS for 3 days and 17 hours to evade detection,” he said. Read more at:
