Police foil attempt to smuggle arms to GAM<\/p>\n
Apriadi Gunawan, The Jakarta Post, Medan<\/p>\n
Police in Labuhan Batu, North Sumatra, arrested on Tuesday five
\nAcehnese people who were trying to smuggle a huge cache of M-16
\nautomatic rifle ammunition and 103 boxes of medicine from Jakarta
\nto strife-torn Aceh.<\/p>\n
The five suspects identified as H, 35, MBK, 32, BS, 42, B, 20,
\nand ABZ, 32 and all Acehnese, were netted by the Labuhan Batu
\nPolice in a traffic operation in Blok Songo Village, Kota Pinang.<\/p>\n
Adj. Sr. Comr. Amrin Karim, spokesman for the North Sumatra
\nPolice, said the five detainees were scheduled to be moved to the
\nprovincial capital of Medan on Wednesday and were believed to be
\nmembers of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), and simultaneously part
\nof a well-organized syndicate supplying provisions to the
\nsecessionist movement.<\/p>\n
\"All detainees are Acehnese and their address are in Bireuen
\nand Banda Aceh. They will be undergoing intensive investigation
\nat the provincial police headquarters,\" he said.<\/p>\n
He said the 5.56 mm bullets and medicine would also be sent to
\nthe police headquarters in Medan as material evidence to
\ninvestigate the origin of the illegal goods, and who supplied
\nthem.<\/p>\n
Second Insp. M. Pasaribu, who led the operation, said that the
\ncontraband was seized from two trucks that were on their way from
\nJakarta to Aceh.<\/p>\n
\"We became suspicious after one of the drivers tried to escape
\nwhen the trucks were told to pull over,\" he said.<\/p>\n
When checking their cargo, the police found the six boxes of
\nammunition and 10 bags of drugs, he explained.<\/p>\n
He said the police suspected that the ammunition was made by
\nthe state-owned munitions plant PT Pindad in Bandung, West Java,
\nwhich engraves all bullets with the letters PINDAD and are easily
\nidentifiable.<\/p>\n
\"But the police are still investigating the ammunition
\nsupplier,\" he said.<\/p>\n
However, Labuhan Batu Police station chief Adj. Sr. Comr.
\nDidit Prabowo said the ammunition was from Finland because the
\nboxes had \"made in Finland\" printed on them.<\/p>\n
He said the ammunition and drugs were supplied by an
\ninternational syndicate in cooperation with GAM's network in
\nJakarta.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Sr. Comr. Iskandar Hasan, chief of detectives at
\nthe North Sumatra Police, said the police would continue to
\nmonitor the trafficking of marijuana from Banda Aceh to Java and
\nthe smuggling of weapons and ammunition from Java to the restive
\nprovince.<\/p>\n
\"We have enhanced coordination among provincial police in
\nSumatra and Java to crack down on the increasing trafficking of
\nmarijuana from Aceh to Java,\" he said.<\/p>\n
GAM smuggles marijuana to other provinces in Sumatra and Java
\nto finance its struggle against security personnel, he said.<\/p>\n
\"GAM is supplied weapons through the Sumatra mainland because
\nof the tight control by the Navy of Aceh's waterways,\" he said.<\/p>\n
In the past year, the police have confiscated thousands of
\ntons of dried marijuana from trucks and buses traveling through
\nSumatra on their way to Java.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/police-foil-attempt-to-smuggle-arms-to-gam-1447893297",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
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