JAYAPURA ~

The border between Indonesia’s Papua Province and Papua New Guinea remains prone to drug smuggling despite efforts to detain suspected individuals entering the area, an official said.

“The lack of available personnel and the vast coverage of Papuan territory become the challenges in preventing drugs entering Papuan region, especially from the border,” Head of the National Narcotics Agency of Papua Brigadier General Sukirman said here Thursday.

Sukirman said the border area was a wide gate for drugs to enter the Indonesian territory as the two country share border in land and sea.

Drug smugglers often do the transaction on boat in the sea and they took alternative road or so-called “jalan tikus” to smuggle the drugs in Papua, Sukirman said.

“Abepantai, Hamadi and Dok IX are where they shore their boats,” Sukirman said.

Therefore the agency is improving its measures to prevent drug smuggling with respective institutions and the law enforcers.

The agency had also signed an MoU on drug smuggling prevention with the Indonesian Military and the National Police.

The agency has 11 additional personnel this year to bolster its operation in the most eastern region of Indonesia.

“They have duties to map the entry gates for drug smuggling and areas where its trafficked,” Sukirman said.

The agency has been also rehabilitating some 50 convicted criminals from local penitentiaries.

“The rehabilitation is to suppress the demand for the drugs,” Sukirman said.