Alleged illegal drinking water firm closed down

JAKARTA (JP): The South Jakarta police have closed down a company believed to be illegally producing and selling fake mineral water, and arrested the owner.

"We're still examining the permit the owner gave us as the legal basis to produce mineral water," South Jakarta Police Head Lt. Col. Sisno Adiwinoto told The Jakarta Post yesterday.

The owner, identified as Theresia, was nabbed by police in a raid in the small hours yesterday on her house in Jl. Bangau, Pondok Labu.

"A number of employees are still being questioned," said Sisno.

Theresia has run the business for about two years, he said.

"She allegedly sold and distributed water straight from the tap and sealed it in plastic cups and bottles labeled as mineral water," Sisno said.

One of the brand names she used was TOP.

Police also found a large number of used plastic bottles of various brands of mineral water in Theresia's house. She said she was once a retailer of mineral water. "Sharp competition drove me to produce and sell the bogus mineral water," she told the police, as broadcast by ANteve yesterday morning.

Increased demand has caused a flood of fake mineral water in recent years.

Early this year, police also smashed a syndicate of producers and distributors of fake mineral water and arrested four alleged criminals at their plant in the Binong Permai housing complex in Tangerang.

Hundreds of bottles were confiscated from the four-member group.

They simply purified groundwater before bottling it in used plastic bottles purchased from scavengers. They then furnished the bottles with plastic packaging bearing the brands of registered products, such as Aqua, A21, Aquarin and Asaba.

The plastic packaging was obtained by one of the suspects from the printing works where he worked.

The fake products were distributed to shops and vendors at slightly less than the price of the real thing.

According to police investigations, fake bottled water can be detected by consumers because it contains tiny white particles and a sediment.

So far, there have been no reports of serious health damage.

The registered trademarks law number 19, issued in 1992, and Article 44 of the 1982 copyright law mean that the suspects, if found guilty, face a maximum penalty of seven years in jail and a Rp 100 million fine each. (bsr)