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Cilacap, Central Java. While police are investigating the head of an island prison for allegedly allowing inmates to operate a trans-Pacific drug ring, the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights on Thursday said it had launched its own inquiry into the case.

Mayun Mataram, head of correctional institutions at the Justice Ministry’s Central Java office, said he had questioned three officials from Besi Penitentiary on Nusakambangan Island, off the coast of Central Java.

They are Marwan Adli, the warden; Iwan Syaefuddin, head of security; and Fob Budhiyono, prisoner education head.

The three prison officials were arrested on Tuesday for allegedly taking bribes in return for allowing inmates to traffic narcotics. They are believed to have sanctioned drug operations that authorities say have been traced as far away as Ecuador and netted inmates some $450,000.

“We have the right to question them internally for official purposes,” Mayun said.

“Besides removing them from their duties, we need to study the case to prepare administrative sanctions if they are proven guilty.”

According to Mayun, administrative sanctions range from a reprimand to dismissal.

He said his office would not interfere with the ongoing police investigation. “Let them question all the prison officials and inmates to dismantle the narcotics [networks] in the jails,” he said.

However, Mayun said that Marwan had given him information that differed from what the warden had reportedly told the police, who maintain that he confessed to his involvement in the drug ring.

“To us, the three prison officials denied all the accusations against them,” he said.

He said Marwan denied receiving money from an inmate, Hartoni Buana Jaya, who was reportedly found with 318.3 grams of methamphetamine in a luxuriously appointed prison cell.

He said the warden also protested the arrest of his grandson, under whose name a bank account containing money alleged to have come from the prison drug trade was opened.

According to Mayun, Marwan was prepared to be put to death if he was convicted of involvement in drug trafficking.

The National Narcotics Agency (BNN) said on Wednesday that Marwan would likely be charged with money laundering in connection with the case.

Justice and Human Rights Minister Patrialis Akbar visited the prison on Thursday and said he would talk with the detained warden to hear his version of the case. “But I would not trust his information 100 percent before it is crosschecked with the information from the BNN and other sources,” he said.

Meanwhile, Untung Sugiyono, the director general for penitentiaries at the Justice Ministry, said the likelihood of drug networks being run from prisons was high because almost half of the country’s inmates were drug offenders.

According to ministry data, 40 percent of the 130,00 convicts and detainees in Indonesian jails were involved in drug crimes.

Untung said that in 2010 alone, his office had uncovered 63 cases of drug violations in jails. That number does not include cases uncovered by the police or other law-enforcement agencies, he added.