Indonesia busts ecstasy-making 'mega superlab'
Indonesian police have detained 21 people including a French and a Dutch national after raiding a factory making ecstasy pills and methamphetamines that officers on Saturday said was a "mega superlab".
Indonesian police have detained 21 people including a French and a Dutch national after raiding a factory making ecstasy pills and methamphetamines that officers on Saturday said was a "mega superlab".
Anti-narcotics officers raided the factory on Friday near the city of Serang, 75 km (45 miles) west of Jakarta.
Police seized 100 kilos of crystal methamphetamine, thousands of ecstasy pills and more than 300 drums of raw drugs ingredients in Friday's raid.
Four Chinese nationals were also among those arrested.
"Can you imagine, in one week they could produce one million pills or tablets," an angry looking President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said during a visit to the plant, which was licensed as a cable factory.
Yudhoyono, who has declared war on drugs, told reporters the factory had the capacity to produce drugs with a potential street value of up to $600 million a year.
Twelve people were detained at the factory and the rest at a warehouse.
Police chief General Sutanto and other officers earlier said said it was third biggest ecstasy making factory in the world.
Asked later by reporters about those comments, Sutanto said foreign anti-drug officials had called it a "mega superlab".
Western drug officials were later seen at the plant, and some Indonesian police said they were either from the United States or Australia.
The plant had been under surveillance since May, but police said they waited until production began before moving in.
