Beutong Ateuh
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| Beutong Ateuh | |
|---|---|
| ActiveCannabis last recorded here in 2026 | |
| |
| Satellite view of Beutong Ateuh, Sentinel-2 cloudless mosaic by EOX, 2016. | |
| Hierarchy | |
| Growing Region | Northern Sumatra |
| Geography | |
| Country | Indonesia |
| Province/State | Aceh |
| Regency | Nagan Raya |
| Coordinates | 4.49, 96.56 |
| Landscape | |
| Area | 405 km² |
| Terrain | Forested mountains, partly protected forest; approximately the Beutong Ateuh Banggalang district |
| Growing history | |
| Dated news reports | 2023–2026 |
| Documentation | |
| Appellations | 0 |
| Accessions | 0 |
| Conservation | |
| Populations | none documented yet |
Beutong Ateuh is a landrace cannabis growing area in the mountains of the kecamatan of Beutong Ateuh Banggalang, Nagan Raya, Aceh, Indonesia, within the Northern Sumatra growing region. Police and army operations found and destroyed cannabis fields of several hectares there in 2023, 2025 and 2026, most of them around the villages of Blang Meurandeh and Kuta Teungoh.[1][2][3]
Geography
The fields lie in the mountains of Beutong Ateuh, about 70 kilometres from the regency seat. In July 2026 the troops sent to them walked the last 7 kilometres on steep tracks.[3] Other operations took longer: about 12 hours through the mountains in March 2023, and a climb of five to seven hours from Blang Meurandeh in April 2023.[4][5] The commander of the regency's army district said the fields burned in April 2023 lay in protected forest of Aceh province.[5] The forest of the Beutong Ateuh mountains joins the Leuser and Ulu Masen forest areas.[6] The field destroyed at Alue Jring, in Blang Meurandeh, in August 2026 was reported at about 1,800 metres.[7]
Cultivation
In March 2023 the West Aceh police counted about 70,000 plants on 32 hectares, between 30 and 250 centimetres tall, some newly planted and some ready to harvest.[4] The fields found in April 2023 were ready to harvest, with plants about two metres tall; on the way to the first of them the team found about five kilograms of harvested cannabis stacked in a hut.[6][8] In September 2023 the regency police found four hectares at Blang Meurandeh, part of it ready to harvest and part planted a month before, together with 50 kilograms of dried cannabis.[9]
In June 2025 the fields lay at eight points, five at Blang Meurandeh and three at Kuta Teungoh, of between two and five hectares each and about 25 hectares in all. The regency police chief put the stand at about 40,000 plants a hectare, or about a million plants.[2] The army's mapping of the 50 hectares destroyed in July 2026 found plants from 15 days to four months old, most of them ready to harvest.[3] The Alue Jring field of August 2026 held about 30,000 plants about four months old, between 1.5 and 3.5 metres tall.[7]
Enforcement
In March 2023 the West Aceh police followed a drug case from the end of 2022 to Beutong Ateuh. Fifty officers reached a 32-hectare field and burned it; its owner, who was at the site, escaped.[4] In April 2023, acting on information about fields in the district's protected forest, an army team reviewing a training ground for an infantry battalion found about 4.4 hectares ready to harvest, and a drone flown over the area located two more fields of about 2.6 and 1.9 hectares.[8] Those 8.9 hectares, at three points, were burned in the presence of the commander of the army's Teuku Umar area command and regency officials.[5] The regency police put the find at about 40 hectares at 11 points;[1] Kompas TV reported that the other eight points were still being tracked, and that security forces had found at least 72 hectares in the Beutong Ateuh mountains in two months.[6] In September 2023 the regency police found the four-hectare field after four days of surveillance; the owner was not caught.[9]
The 2025 operation grew out of an investigation, begun in May, into a network moving cannabis from Aceh to North Sumatra. In June 2025 the national police arrested a courier at Banda Sakti in Lhokseumawe who said he had received 27 kilograms of dried cannabis from a grower whose fields lay at Blang Meurandeh and Kuta Teungoh.[10] Teams from the national police, the Aceh police and the regency police then destroyed the eight fields between 19 and 24 June.[2]
In February 2026 the provincial police stopped a car at Kuta Blang in Bireuen carrying about 50 kilograms of cannabis. The driver, a farmer from Central Aceh, said the consignment had come from Beutong Ateuh and was bound for Geudong in North Aceh.[11] On 8 July 2026 about 50 soldiers from several army units, led by the commander of the Nagan Raya army district, destroyed 50 hectares at Blang Meurandeh.[3] On 15 August 2026 the Aceh office of the national narcotics agency, with the regency police, pulled up the plants at Alue Jring and burned them on the spot.[7]
Earlier allegations
In July 1999 the military killed the ulama Tgk. Bantaqiah and 56 of his followers at his boarding school in Beutong Ateuh. Rodd McGibbon writes that the military claimed Bantaqiah was involved in cultivating cannabis and suspected him of links to the Free Aceh Movement, claims that have never been independently verified.[12]: 336
Accessions
No accessions documented yet.
Recent news
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Iskandar, Teuku Dedi (12 April 2023). "Tim gabungan musnahkan 40 ha ladang ganja di Aceh". Antara News Bengkulu (in Bahasa Indonesia). Antara. Retrieved 19 October 2026.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Iskandar, Teuku Dedi (25 June 2025). "Bareskrim Polri musnahkan 25 ha ladang ganja di Nagan Raya". Antara News Aceh (in Bahasa Indonesia). Antara. Retrieved 19 October 2026.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Rizwan (11 July 2026). "TNI Musnahkan Ladang Ganja 50 Hektare di Pegunungan Nagan Raya, Sebagian Tanaman Siap Panen". Prohaba (in Bahasa Indonesia). Retrieved 19 October 2026.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Aisyah, Siti (7 March 2023). "Polisi Aceh Barat Musnahkan 32 Hektare Ladang Ganja di Nagan Raya, Pemilik Kabur". acehkini (in Bahasa Indonesia). Retrieved 19 October 2026 – via kumparan.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Rizwan (11 April 2023). "Jalan Kaki 7 Jam, Danrem 012/Teuku Umar & Forkopimda Musnahkan Ladang Ganja 8,9 Ha di Beutong Ateuh". Serambinews (in Bahasa Indonesia). Retrieved 19 October 2026.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 "Ladang Ganja Seluas 40 Hektar Kembali Ditemukan". Kompas TV (in Bahasa Indonesia). 13 April 2023. Retrieved 19 October 2026.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Malik, Abdul (17 August 2026). "BNNP Aceh Musnahkan Ladang Ganja Seluas 12 Hektare di Nagan Raya". Komparatif.ID (in Bahasa Indonesia). Retrieved 19 October 2026.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 "Ladang Ganja Seluas 8,9 Hektare Ditemukan di Hutan Lindung Nagan Raya". iNews.id (in Bahasa Indonesia). 10 April 2023. Retrieved 19 October 2026.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Zul Nagan (20 September 2023). "Polres Nagan Raya Temukan 4 Hektare Ladang Ganja di Beutong Ateuh Banggalang". Waspada Aceh (in Bahasa Indonesia). Retrieved 19 October 2026.
- ↑ Mahendra, Bonfilio (25 June 2025). "Bareskrim Ungkap 25 Hektare Ladang Ganja di Aceh". RMOL (in Bahasa Indonesia). Retrieved 19 October 2026.
- ↑ "Petani di Aceh Ditangkap Polisi saat Bawa 4 Karung Ganja". detikSumut (in Bahasa Indonesia). 20 February 2026. Retrieved 14 September 2026.
- ↑ McGibbon, Rodd (2006). "Local Leadership and the Aceh Conflict". In Reid, Anthony (ed.). Verandah of Violence: The Background to the Aceh Problem. Singapore: Singapore University Press. pp. 315–359. ISBN 9971-69-331-3.