Drugs may 'destroy Indonesia's youth', says top general in slap at China gangs

A surge in international drug smuggling - mostly originating in China and shipped through Hong Kong - could "destroy" Indonesia's youth, one of the country's most senior military officers has warned.

General Gatot Nurmantyo, chief of staff of the Indonesian army, told university students last week that crime syndicates were using drugs as part of an "international conspiracy" to "destroy the Indonesian younger generation, so that the nation would be deprived of a high-quality generation in the future".

With porous borders and increasing drug use, the world's fourth most populous nation has long been an attractive and lucrative market for Hong Kong's triads and mainland Chinese syndicates.

Much of the methamphetamine found in Indonesia originates in Guangdong, where it is manufactured before being shipped via Hong Kong, according to police and United Nations reports.

In May, Indonesian authorities announced plans to step up monitoring of flights from China, including Hong Kong, in the wake of a "significant" increase in drug-trafficking cases this year.

Hong Kong's triads have targeted Indonesian migrant workers to smuggle methamphetamine out of the city, the Sunday Morning Post reported earlier this year.