TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The national police recently busted Fredy Pratama’s drug ring after 10 years of investigation. Since 2022, the police have so far arrested 923 suspects and seized 10.2 tons of crystal methamphetamine or sabu-sabu and 116,000 ecstasy pills, more than the amount seized from the network of Freddy Budiman, the drug lord executed in 2016 after being convicted for the import of 1.4 million ecstasy pills.

Fredy Pratama also known as Miming, The Secret, Cassanova, Airbag, and Mojopahit is currently suspected to be in Thailand. The National Police have issued a red notice to the Interpol for the search and arrest of Fredy who is dubbed Escobar of Indonesia. “He feels safer there, of course. We will be in hot pursuit if he’s here in Indonesia,” said the Chief of Police’s Criminal Investigation Department (Bareskrim), Comr. Gen. Wahyu Widada said during an interview with Tempo journalists at his office on Friday, September 22.

Through the interview, Wahyu was accompanied by Sr. Comr. Jayadi, Deputy Director for Narcotics Crimes. Wahyu explained how the Operation Escobar team began detecting the network, how the criminals used the same communication app, as well as how the drug packages were disguised to look like Chinese tea packages.

In the operation, the police also nabbed the Chief of the Lampung Police’s Narcotics Unit, Adj. Comr. Andri Bustami, who oversaw the sabu-sabu and ecstasy pills shipments from Sumatra to Java through the Bakauheni Port in Lampung.

How did the police first detect Fredy Pratama’s network?

Actually, this is a culmination of findings in several regional police departments such as in Lampung, South Kalimantan, Banten. and also from the Bareskrim. From there, we did analyses and found similarities. They all used BBM (BlackBerry Messenger). People usually use WhatsApp, Signal. All the goods seized also have the same Chinese tea packaging.

What’s so special about the Chinese tea packaging?

Those from the Golden Triangle area always use Chinese tea packaging to camouflage their goods. So, we analyzed all these and they finally led us to Fredy Pratama. We also revisited old police reports to see if they had any links to him. We traced all the way back to 2020 and found 408 reports between 2020 to 2023.

Why only from 2020?

There were already quite a lot (of cases). If our focus is on just one person, we can’t expand to the others. There are still networks aside from Fredy Pratama.

What is unique about Fredy’s network?

From what I’ve observed since I was a regional police chief, the trails always stopped at dealers, their links to the top somewhat broken but we could see a highly organized mechanism. Fredy Pratama is the mastermind. He has his own operations controller, Kif. Then there are individuals specifically responsible for creating fake identities, fake accounts, handling cash, withdrawing cash from ATMs (automatic teller machines), and coordinating assets. So, it’s indeed highly organized.

What distinguishes it from, for instance, Freddy Budiman’s network?

Freddy Budiman acted more as a primary controller and did not have specific people to make fake identity cards and so on. His has a network but not as organized as this.

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By scale, is Fredy Pratama’s network bigger?

We think so. He’s in Thailand now. It means he has assets there too and controls (his business) from a far. That’s why we don’t act alone in an operation like this. Fortunately, we’ve been already coordinating with several countries so we receive assistance from Malaysia and Thailand.

Why did Fredy choose Thailand?

He’s married to a Thai woman. His family is there.

Are there any other reasons?

From our analysis, he feels he’s safer there, of course. We will be in hot pursuit if he’s here in Indonesia. Not because the Indonesian police are better or more powerful but although he’s in another country and controls his operation here from there, it means his crimes happen here.

He’s relatively safe because he committed the crimes from another country?

I don’t know what kind of crimes he committed in Thailand. If he lives in Thailand and the goods he is dealing with do not come from Thailand, for example, then he is not committing any crime in Thailand. Besides, he also has his extended family in Thailand.

How was he able to build a cartel of this caliber?

We can’t be certain where he came from until he became like this. But sometimes people can make it big because there is someone behind them or they simply stumble upon something big by a stroke of luck.

Has Fredy been possibly lucky or made big (by the help of someone)?

Everything is possible. From the beginning, he was already involved in the drug trade. Perhaps he was looking for something even bigger and trying to find conveniences and opportunities.

Did Fredy’s sabu-sabu and ecstasy pills definitely come from Myanmar? How did he order them?

We haven’t gotten into how he ordered them and so on.

They were from Myanmar, right?

From the Golden Triangle. Myanmar.

What made the police sure that they were from Myanmar? Are there special characteristics?

Goods packed in Chinese tea packaging usually come from there. Those from the Middle East usually come in Tupperware containers. The one that we seized in Aceh came from Afghanistan. They came in Tupperware without any writing inside.

Which is the entry point into Indonesia?

Most of them came through Sumatra, from the east coast. It is indeed a long coast situated right across Malaysia, and not so far from Malaysia.

What about other entry points besides Sumatra?

Kalimantan. We caught one in Kinabalu, Sarawak, that came via land.

Is the Operation Escobar named after the Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar?

Our colleagues saw this as something big and organized. And a really big organized drug mafia that often appears in movies is Escobar. Okay, done, we picked the name, Escobar. First, at least it motivated our members to dismantle something like this, a huge network. It also made them proud. Second, because their operations were similar, meaning Fredy Pratama’s syndicate ran well-organized and international operations.

The team members are not just from the National Police Headquarters?

We also involved regional police departments. It’s a joint team, coupled with assistance from other countries. This is a pretty big joint operation.

Read the Full Interview in Tempo English Magazine