99 people detained for gambling on cockfights
99 people detained for gambling on cockfights
JAKARTA (JP): The police have arrested at least 99 people who have been involved in card games and gambling on cockfights over the past few days.
The police also confiscated around Rp 4 million (US$1,860) in cash from the gamblers.
Most of the gamblers caught were ethnic Chinese or members of the Armed Forces (ABRI) head of the operational affairs of the On-the-Alert city police squad, Capt. Syaiful Bd., told reporters yesterday.
The suspects were arrested in four separate raids by the squad operation called Operasi Wallet (Swallow Operation).
The latest action was carried out at 2 a.m. Tuesday when police stormed a house, used as a gambling den, on Jl. Hidup Baru, Pademangan Barat, in North Jakarta. Eight people were arrested and tables for the dice game Kopro were confiscated. Kopro is a game where the outcome of a roll of the dice is bet on.
On Monday, the team made raids at two separate places.
The first took place at a house on Jl. Budimulyo, also Pademangan Barat district. The afternoon ambush ended with seven people arrested.
In the evening, another seven people were nabbed at a site on Jl. Gunung Sahari in Central Jakarta along with Kopro tables.
77 people
The operation reached its height on Wednesday afternoon of last week, when the team nabbed a total of 77 people of various professions and seized 14 cocks at a well-organized cock-fighting site in Ciracas, East Jakarta.
Located behind the Super Mie noodle factory, police believe that the gambling there had been going on for many years with the backing of several ABRI members.
"We came to the location only after we got information about the operation from the public," Syaiful said.
The arrested included five active ABRI members, a dozen retired ABRI officers, a lawyer, a veterinarian and an elementary school teacher.
The veterinarian, identified as Helmi Suwardi of Depok, is believed to have treated the game cocks prior to and after the fights.
Syaiful said that the owner of the site is Susanto, believed to have also provided the four-square-meter arena for the cocks to fight in.
However, only three of the 77 people were detained, as by law the police cannot detain anyone facing a prison term of less than five years. But they are under house arrest and are required to regularly report to the police. During a certain period of time they are not allowed to go out of town or abroad.
"We will detain the others if they are found guilty of committing other crimes," Syaiful said.
The three now in police custody at the City Police Headquarters are the owner of the place, the man who ran the gambling and the referee. (bsr)