Armed gang dressed as police sought for robbery

JAKARTA (JP): Bogor and Bekasi Police detectives are on the lookout for five armed men wearing police uniforms and driving a van with military license plates who made off with a container truck on Friday.

"We know all their identities. It's just a matter of time before they make an appearance," Bogor Regional Police chief Col. Edi Darnadi told The Jakarta Post on Sunday evening.

Separately, Bekasi Police chief Lt. Col. Sutarman said his men had failed to name any suspects in the robbery.

"Anyway, the case is no longer handled by us. It's already in the hands of the Bogor Police," Sutarman told the Post.

The incident, which happened on the Jakarta-Cikampek toll road in Bekasi, is the latest in a series of armed robberies on toll roads connecting Jakarta with several neighboring towns in West Java.

The truck driver, Idris bin Mansur, 48, suffocated from the gag put over his mouth.

His assistant driver, Ichsan, 20, survived after he managed to loosen the gag and scream for help.

Bogor Police chief Lt. Col. Ade Husen told reporters on Saturday that the five men, who were armed with pistols and sharp weapons, bound the pair's legs and hands and gagged them after beating the back of their heads with guns.

The men took the truck, which was loaded with socks to be exported, and dumped the driver and Ichsan on the side of the Jagorawi toll road in Cijunjung, Bogor, Ade said.

The officer quoted the prime witness, Ichsan, as saying that the robbery took place at about 9:30 p.m.

Ichsan was able to untie himself and was helped by residents of Cijunjung five hours later, Ade said.

Ichsan told Bogor detectives that the suspects were driving a Toyota Kijang van bearing an official license plate for military- owned vehicles.

Ade said PT Punanarjaya, the owner of the cargo that was being driven from a factory in Cikarang, Bekasi, to Tanjung Priok seaport in North Jakarta for export, lost hundreds of millions of rupiah in the robbery.

Ichsan said the culprits' van overtook the truck and made them pull over.

Several men in police uniforms got out of the van, approached the container truck and ordered Idris and Ichsan to get down, Ade quoted Ichsan as saying.

"They asked the victims to show the truck's documents and then they suddenly struck the victims on the backs of their heads with the butts of their guns," the officer continued.

Idris and Ichsan were then put into the van where the other suspects gagged their mouths and bound their hands and feet, he said.

The van was driven toward Bogor via the Jagorawi toll road, where the victims were then thrown out.

Ichsan told police investigators that Idris was no longer breathing when they were dumped on the side of the toll road.

With help from locals, Idris' body was taken to Bogor PMI General Hospital.

In the past three months, toll roads linking Jakarta with neighboring towns, such as Bogor and Cikampek, have had at least six armed robberies on public buses.

The latest took place on Wednesday on the Jakarta-Cikampek toll road. The three criminals, who escaped, killed the bus driver and the conductor and shot a passenger in the leg.

As in other robberies, police are unable to locate the culprits.

Officer Edi is worried that the gangs, which have been listed as their most wanted criminals, will shift their operation to other toll roads, such as in Tangerang and Cilegon.

"We've deployed a special team of 30 sharpshooters at buses and spots along the toll road under our jurisdiction which we believe to be the most possible areas for their criminal operation.

"But none of them have appeared yet," the senior police detective said.

Edi vowed he and his men would make an all-out effort to arrest the culprits, who might have grouped from different gangs.

Separately, Ade believed that men from Friday's incident were bogus police officers.

"They were just wearing police uniforms in order to make it easy to stop the truck," he said. (bsr/21/ylt)