North Maluku’s police narcotics directorate, Ditresnarkoba Polda Malut, arrested a 31-year-old man identified as MS alias SAL beside the road in Desa Lukolamo, a village in Weda Tengah district, Central Halmahera, on Friday 30 October 2026.[1][2][3][4] Police said the case began with a public tip about suspected possession and distribution of ganja in the area.[1][5] Officers posed as buyers and set up an undercover purchase, the police statement said.[1][5] They ordered seven sachets of ganja, the Indonesian word for cannabis, for Rp 700,000.[1][5][4]

When MS arrived and handed over the seven sachets, the team detained him without resistance.[1] A search of his jeans pocket found nine transparent clip bags holding 5.23 grams gross of ganja and a green Oppo mobile phone.[1] A search of his rented room found 14 small sachets and one medium sachet containing leftover ganja, 11.08 grams gross, in a backpack.[1] In all, police seized 23 clip bags and one sachet of leftover ganja weighing 16.35 grams gross, a sheet of white tissue and the phone.[2][5][6][4]

MS told officers he had brought 30 sachets from Ambon, bought from a friend identified as SS for Rp 500,000, and said they were for his own use.[1] The director of the North Maluku narcotics directorate, Kombes Pol Azhar Nugroho, said the case was part of the force’s effort to curb drug circulation in the province.[1] The operation was led by Ipda Harbun Fatmona of Unit 2, Subdit II.[7] MS and the evidence were taken to the Ditresnarkoba office in North Maluku for examination and further legal process.[2]

Azhar said investigators would develop the case to break up the network behind the suspect and urged residents to keep reporting drug activity in the province.[5]