1.16 tons of ketamine seized from oil tanker offshore Indonesia, 8 people including 1 Taiwanese arrested

Indonesia's National Anti-Narcotics Agency Director Su Yudi said today that a Mongolian-flagged ship from Malaysia was seized in the waters of North Sumatra Province earlier this week, and 1.16 metric tons of ketamine was seized. Among the eight people arrested on the ship, one was a Taiwanese national.

Reuters reported that Suyudi Ario Seto, director of the National Narcotics Agency, pointed out that the police and customs jointly intercepted the oil tanker off the coast of Tanjung Balai, North Sumatra this week and arrested eight people, including the captain, engineer and oiler. Seven of them were Indonesian and one was Taiwanese.

Suyudi said that the police found 58 sacks containing ketamine (commonly known as K) on the ship, with a total weight of 1.16 metric tons and a market value of approximately 3.48 trillion Indonesian rupiah (approximately NT$6.29 billion).

The tanker departed from Pasir Gudang, Malaysia, and headed to the Andaman Sea via the Strait of Malacca. Authorities believe that the ship transshipped with another ship in the Andaman Sea and obtained the batch of ketamine.

Suyudi revealed that law enforcement officers noticed an abnormality in the ship's automatic identification system (AIS) before the interception and investigation and launched the operation. He pointed out that the quantity of drugs seized this time proved that "international criminal groups have caused great harm to our country's national security."

Indonesia has some of the strictest anti-drug laws in the world, including the death penalty for drug smugglers. Two Australian members of the Bali Nine were arrested trying to smuggle heroin out of Indonesia in 2005 and executed in 2015.