Andi Arief Arrested in Drug Case: How Many Narcotics Crimes Have Occurred?

The Deputy Secretary General of the Democratic Party, Andi Arief, was arrested by the police on Sunday (February 3, 2019) for alleged use of methamphetamine ("sabu"). The Directorate of Narcotics Crime of the Indonesian National Police's Criminal Investigation Agency (Bareskrim Polri) apprehended the politician from the party with the Mercedes-Benz emblem at a hotel in the Slipi area, West Jakarta.

For information, based on data from the Central Bureau of Statistics, crimes related to narcotics and psychotropics showed an upward trend from 2010 to 2016, as seen in the graph below. Only in 2017 did the number of narcotics-related crimes decrease.

Despite numerous arrests and convictions, including death sentences, of narcotics users, distributors, and kingpins, narcotics crime continues in Indonesia. The Jakarta Metro Police (Polda Metro Jaya) region is the most vulnerable to narcotics-related crime, with 7,214 reported incidents. This is followed by North Sumatra Police (Polda Sumatera Utara) with 5,907 incidents and East Java Police (Polda Jawa Timur) with 3,405 incidents.