By holding them in separate prison we have settled 50 percent of the job of controlling drug traffics in the country."
Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Luhut Binsar Panjaitan said on Tuesday drug convicts should not be mixed with other prisoners.

Drug traffics involving convicts could be easily controlled if they are put in separate prison houses, Luhut said, adding up to 50 percent of drug traffics in the country are directed and controlled by bosses in prisons.

"By holding them in separate prison we have settled 50 percent of the job of controlling drug traffics in the country," he said.

Luhut asked prison chiefs to be more strict in implementing regulation and procedure to prevent drug traffic in prisons.

Strong leaders are needed to control activities of drug convicts in their prisons, he said.

Communications between drug convicts with people outside prison should be restricted but not allowing them to have telecommunications devices, he added.

The government has been worried by the rampant drug traffic in the country despite severe punishment against suspects.

The government said around 5.9 million Indonesian were regular users of narcotics and around 40-50 of them died every day.

The government has executed more than ten drug convicts over the past year drawing international condemnation.

However, the execution is not effective enough to deter traffickers as indicated by the growing number of users.

Luhut said users of methamphetamine in the country grew by 350 percent and ecstasy users rose 250 percent over the past several years.
(Uu.A014/H-ASG)

Editor: Priyambodo RH
Copyright © ANTARA 2016