MEDAN, Oct 23 — Indonesian authorities have seized 1.1 tonnes of ketamine from a foreign vessel in Sumatran waters, the Southeast Asian nation’s second major drug bust in two months, a police official said today.

Ketamine functions primarily as a fast-acting anaesthetic but is widely abused as an illicit party drug. Its distribution is tightly controlled and monitored in Indonesia.

The intelligence community began tracking the MT Global 168 tanker, sailing from Thailand through the Andaman Sea, in August after receiving information it may be engaged in suspicious activities, national police chief Suyudi Ario Seto told reporters in the city of Medan.

The vessel flew the Mongolian flag but is owned by a company based in Johor Bahru, Malaysia, Suyudi said.