If you’re the sort of person who enjoys North/West Jakarta’s notorious club scene, be warned. On Saturday night, authorities conducted drug raids on two of the area’s most popular clubs, Colosseum and Golden Crown, in which they checked hundreds of clubbers and found dozens to either be possessing drugs or testing positive for drugs.
A joint task force comprised of officers from the Jakarta Police Narcotics Directorate and the Jakarta office of the National Narcotic Agency (BNNP) conducted the raids.
“The evidence we found will be investigated further, while those that tested positive by BNNP will be submitted for rehabilitation assessment,” Commissioner Eko Daniyanto, director of the Jakarta Police Narcotics Directorate, said on Monday as quoted by Warta Kota.
During the raid on Colosseum, authorities secured 176 club goers. According to Eko, 25 were processed by the police for carrying ecstasy or H5 (Happy Five) pill, while 125 visitors tested negative. Eko also said that 26 people tested positive for benzoate drug use.
Meanwhile during the raid on the Golden Crown club on Mangga Besar, officers secured 210 people, of which 167 tested negative, 29 tested positive and four required further examination. Officers also said they found 10 ecstasy pills being carried by clubbers.
What will be interesting to see now is whether the government will just punish those individuals found to be using or possessing drugs, or if the clubs themselves will face any kind of sanctions, as authorities including Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama have said they would shut down clubs found to in violation of drug laws more than once. But given the fearsome reputations of the people said to own those clubs, we kind of doubt this will lead to any actual closures.
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