REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, PEKANBARU -- Police in Riau province seized 118 kilograms of crystal meth in the January-April 2018 period. The figure is quite large compared to 121 kilograms for all of 2017, Director of Drugs at the Riau Provincial Police Senior Commissioner Haryono said here on Thursday.

During the period of time the police also seized 57,992 ecstasy pills and 28.9 kilograms of hashish.

He estimated the total value of the crystal meth, ecstasy pills and hashish seized in a series of raids at Rp186.2 billion.

Also read: Riau police confiscate drug worth Rp12.7 billion on street

Most of the contraband was smuggled through the province's coastal areas and came from international drug syndicates, he said.

Riau Provincial Police chief Nandang (second left) accompanied by Director of Drug Detective Director Hariono (second right), head of Public Relations Division Sunarto (left) and Bengkalis Police Resort chief Yusup Rahmanto (right) exposes evidences on drug cases in a press conference held in Riau Provincial Police headquarters, Sudirman Street, Pekanbaru, Riau, on Wednesday (May 2).

In total, 926 people were named suspects in 684 cases of narcotic abuse, he said.

"The number of suspects also increased compared to the same period last year when the figure was recorded at 603," he said.

Separately, Chief of the Riau Provincial Police Inspector General Nandang said the large quantity of crystal meth seized in the raids indicated that Riau is highly prone to the smuggling of drugs.

One of the outstanding drug cases in Riau is the foiled attempt to smuggle 55 kilograms of crystal meth worth Rp55 billion and 46,718 ecstasy pills worth more than Rp14 billion via Bengkalis district.

The Bengkalis district police foiled the drug smuggling attempt and named three suspects believed to be members of an international drug syndicate.

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