BNN Tightens Drug Patrol as Tourism Returns to Yogyakarta

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The return of tourism and campus activities to Yogyakarta have recently been followed by heightened surveillance of drug trafficking. As a tourist destination and city of students, Yogyakarta remains as one of Java's most vulnerable areas for drug circulation.

"We are increasing undercover surveillance in areas such as airports, stations, terminals, and public spaces now that tourism and education activities are fully operational in Yogyakarta," Yogyakarta City's National Narcotics Agency head, Adj. Sr. Comr. Khamdani, said on Wednesday, June 29.

Khamdani said that Yogyakarta recorded 18,082 addicts in 2019, which was 2.3 percent of the population. In the city of Yogyakarta alone, the number of drug busts in 2021 reached 224 cases.

"When Covid-19 cases soared, drug trafficking cases also rose," he said.

Early this year, when the daily Covid cases were still high, authorities uncovered two cases of drug trafficking among students and cross-province dealers.

Khamdani said that drug trafficking still exists during the Covid-19 pandemic because the market still exists in Yogyakarta. Thus, restricting people's mobility does not necessarily stop drug trafficking.

"Now that there is a relaxation, we have to tighten our supervision further," he said.

PRIBADI WICAKSONO

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