Indonesia Continues War Against Drugs By Setting New Penalties For Offenders

For years Indonesia has been known to have no mercy for drug dealers in the country. In 2015, it was suggested that a prison be built on an island guarded by crocodiles to hold drug convicts. Indonesia’s anti-drugs chief, frustrated by

In a bid to make drug criminals face the law adequately and also stop the trade of drugs in their prisons Indonesia’s anti-drugs chief, has suggested jails be guarded by ghosts because they cannot be bribed.

The online edition of the newspaper Media Indonesia reported that Budi Waseso, the head of the National Narcotics Agency, said 50 per cent of drug trade was controlled by drug dealers from prisons.

“Ghosts cannot be bribed, probably costing only incense,’’ he was quoted as saying, in apparent tongue-in-cheek remarks.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo has also recently ordered police to shoot drug dealers if they resisted arrest, in remarks that drew a comparison to Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s deadly war on drugs.

“Let us be firm, especially to foreign drug traffickers entering the country.

“If they resist, even a little, just shoot them, there should be no mercy, Joko said.

His remarks came after the national police chief, Tito Karnavian, said that shooting suspected drug traffickers had proven to be an effective deterrent.

Since 2014, Indonesia has executed 18 people for drug trafficking, defying international calls for mercy.