Car smuggling details revealed at court
Car smuggling details revealed at court
JAKARTA (JP): Customs officers yesterday revealed to a court
here the detailed account of a motor vehicle smuggling attempt
made a few months ago.
Suharto, a customs officer working at a port storage facility,
told the North Jakarta district court that he grew suspicious
when he saw a seemingly hesitant driver near the port's
checkpoint on Sept. 14 of last year.
"The man drove the car to the exit point, but did not actually
exit," Suharto said, adding that all documents are checked before
containers are allowed to exit.
After questioning the driver, Suharto added, it was discovered
that the container was not sealed with a yellow tag, which would
indicate that all administration procedures and paperwork had
been cleared. In addition, the invoice did not agree with a list
filed by the customs department.
The container was subsequently not allowed to pass through. It
was placed in a special storage site and sealed with a red tag
indicating it was suspected, Suharto added.
About 45 days later, an attempt was made to remove the red-
sealed container from the storage site, Ahmad Adijaya, another
customs officer, told the court.
Ahmad said that he learned about the attempted exit on Oct. 31
from his subordinates.
"The driver did not have any documents to show us. He said
that some other people had come earlier to deliver them, but we
never found them," Ahmad added.
Achmad Kosim, a third witness, said he was ordered by his
superior to locate an original record bearing the delivery permit
number earlier confiscated by Suharto. He said that several
discrepancies were detected, including different types of paper
used for the invoice, different locations of invoice serial
numbers, and the port logo was stamped only on the false invoice,
as opposed to original ones, which bear a printed logo.
Three men are being charged with smuggling two luxury cars and
a motorcycle by falsifying a delivery order permit and an invoice
list. A fourth suspect, Mulyono, remains at large.
The invoice declared that the container was filled with
various vehicle spare parts. A modified blue Mercedes 500 SL, a
black Porsche 991 and an 800-cc Honda motorcycle were its actual
contents.
All three suspects claimed to have not known about the
container's contents.
Court was adjourned yesterday and will continue today. (14)