Indonesia Plans Drug Prison Guarded by Crocodiles

By Jeralyn, Section Foreign Affairs
Posted on Tue Nov 10, 2015 at 08:45:00 AM EST
Tags: Indonesia (all tags)

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Indonesia wants to build a prison for condemned drug traffickers on an island surrounded and guarded by crocodiles.

The proposal is the pet project of anti-drugs chief Budi Waseso, who plans to visit various parts of the archipelago in his search for reptiles to guard the jail.

"We will place as many crocodiles as we can there. I will search for the most ferocious type of crocodile,” he was quoted as saying by local news website Tempo.

Waseso said that crocodiles would be better at preventing drug traffickers from escaping prison as they could not be bribed – unlike human guards. “You can’t bribe crocodiles. You can’t convince them to let inmates escape,” he said.

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Ironically, Indonesia is currently drafting an amnesty law for money launderers and crooked officials. All they have to do is promise to bring their hidden treasure back to Indonesia.

Maybe Mr. Waseso should take a trip to Honduras where 10,000 crocodiles are starving to death -- they belong to a family the U.S. says is awash in money from illegal drug activity:

More than 10,000 crocodiles are starving to death on a farm in Honduras after the wealthy family owning them had their assets frozen because of U.S. accusations they laundered money for drug traffickers. The family denies the allegations.

Not surprisingly, Indonesia's drug laws, which include the death penalty, aren't working.

Despite the harsh laws, Indonesia’s corrupt prison system is awash with drugs, and inmates and jail officials are regularly arrested for narcotics offences.

Indonesia believes it is necessary to isolate drug traffickers to prevent them from mingling and recruiting others.

He said only traffickers would be kept in the jail, to stop them from mixing with other prisoners and potentially recruiting them to drug gangs.

Indonesia and its government should worry less about drug traffickers and more about its ISIS problem. ISIS recruits in Indonesia tripled in the past year.