30 Africans arrested in two months
JAKARTA (JP): The Central Jakarta police have arrested at least 30 Africans for various crimes, mostly for overstaying their visas and involvement in counterfeiting U.S. banknotes, in the last two months.
The head of the precinct's intelligence unit, Maj. Yusril Hakim, said on Tuesday that the Central Jakarta police had already completed the dossiers of all the foreign suspects.
"Some of them have been sent to the directorate general of immigration for further processing," Yusril said.
Central Jakarta, he said, was prone to crimes committed allegedly by foreigners.
"We have located some districts and areas where these crooks often indulge in their schemes, both on Jakartans and fellow foreigners."
Yusril, however, declined to give further details.
But he said he was unsatisfied with some of his subordinates' "achievements" because some of the crooks they busted were seen walking freely on the streets just few days after the police handed them over to the prosecutor's office.
Yusril was referring to five Africans arrested last year for allegedly being involved in counterfeiting money.
After the questioning, the five were then sent to the city prosecutor's office to be further questioned.
"One or two of the five people were then seen walking in a certain area not long after that. It's sad but that's how our legal procedure works," Yusril said without elaboration.
On Sunday and Monday, Central Jakarta intelligence police arrested five Liberians for exceeding their staying limit.
They were identified as Charles S. Blamo, Fabrice B. Taulbert, Stanley Jarson, Steve Gaye and Calvin Wide.
Except for Wide, the other four were apprehended in a cheap hotel, the Pardede, in Senen along with "black" papers, which were believed to be used as a means to counterfeit the U.S. currency notes.
Wide was arrested in the Laotze hotel in Kota.
"They should have stayed not more than 60 days but in our routine operation, we raided some hotels and found they had stayed more than 60 days," he said.
The five are now being detained at Central Jakarta police station for questioning. (emf)