THE night was fading into dawn. A cool breeze blew as the 20 men hastened into a hotel. Pistols in hand, they raced to the third floor of the Tanah Abang Indah Hotel in Central Jakarta.

Tumult then erupted there that early morning, two weeks ago. But there was no bloodshed. The police rounded up 37 men—all dark-skinned and well-built—from the seven rooms they were occupying. They also found 385 grams of heroin in two suitcases, in t