Bareskrim Arrests Suspect in Gold Smuggling to Hong Kong at Soekarno-Hatta Airport

The Criminal Investigation Agency (Bareskrim) of the Indonesian National Police has uncovered a case of gold smuggling sourced from illegal mining operations in various regions of Indonesia to Hong Kong. Bareskrim arrested a suspect with the initials R at Soekarno-Hatta Airport moments after he landed from Japan.

Director of Certain Crimes at Bareskrim, Brigadier General Mohammad Irhamni, explained that suspect R is an Indonesian citizen. He was arrested on Tuesday morning (25/8). The arrest was carried out by investigators after monitoring the suspect’s movements.

“We conducted a search as a follow-up development from suspect R, who was arrested by investigators upon his arrival from Japan at Soekarno-Hatta Airport,” Irhamni said in a written statement on Wednesday (26/8/2026).

Bareskrim then expanded the investigation by searching a house believed to be the syndicate’s base. The house was occupied by a Chinese national with the initials GCZ, who is now believed to have fled abroad.

“We continued with a search at one of the houses that serves as their home base, the home base of GCZ. GCZ is a Chinese national who accommodated and smuggled the gold to Hong Kong,” Irhamni explained.

During the search, police found gold processing equipment and Rp60 million in cash. Transaction documents were also discovered.

“In this search, we found several tools used for gold refining that would later be smuggled. There was a sum of money of approximately Rp60 million that we seized, along with several transaction documents and agreement documents,” he said.

Irhamni stressed that his team will not stop at the arrest of R. Police are coordinating with the Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (PPATK) to trace the syndicate’s financial flows and assets.

“From these transaction documents, we will attempt to coordinate with PPATK to trace their financial transactions and where their assets are stored. We will pursue and seize assets in order to recover proceeds from the sale of illegal gold or the smuggling of illegal gold to Hong Kong,” he said.