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Indonesian authorities have seized 1.3 tonnes of ketamine worth about $116 million from a foreign-flagged vessel in one of the country’s largest drug busts.
National Narcotics Agency chief Suyudi Ario Seto said on Sunday that authorities began monitoring the vessel in February after receiving intelligence that the MV King Sun was travelling from Thailand towards Indonesia with suspicious cargo.
A navy warship intercepted the vessel on Thursday as it entered Indonesian waters, he said.
Suyudi said a joint team later found 65 sacks hidden inside the vessel on August 7. Tests confirmed that the contents were ketamine.
“On August 7, the joint team found 65 sacks hidden inside the ship. After testing, the items were known to contain ketamine,” Suyudi told a news conference on the Indonesian island of Batam on Sunday.
The seized consignment was estimated to be worth 2.07 trillion rupiah ($116.2 million), while authorities continued searching the vessel to determine whether more drugs were hidden onboard.
Ketamine is primarily used as a fast-acting anaesthetic but is also widely abused as an illicit recreational drug. Its distribution is strictly controlled in Indonesia.
The state news agency Antara reported that the vessel was registered under the Tanzanian flag and was intercepted in waters around the Riau Islands province, near Singapore.
Eight crew members, seven Myanmar nationals and one Taiwanese national, have been detained in connection with the seizure.
Suyudi said investigators were working to establish where the ketamine originated, its intended destination and the identities of those who sent and were due to receive the shipment.
“We are still investigating with regards to the origin of the load, port destination, who was the sender and who was the receiver,” Suyudi said.
The seizure comes weeks after Indonesian authorities confiscated 3.37 tonnes of cannabis in a separate smuggling operation from Thailand, arresting 12 suspects.
In 2021, police also dismantled a drug-smuggling network that brought 2.5 tonnes of methamphetamine into Indonesia from Afghanistan, leading to the arrest of 17 suspects.
Indonesia has some of the world’s strictest drug laws, including the death penalty for drug traffickers, although executions have been under a moratorium for several years.
