Chief says report on rampant triad activity needs further study

JAKARTA (JP): National Police Chief Gen. Banurusman said yesterday that reports on the infiltration of Hong Kong-based triads here requires further investigation before anything conclusive can be determined.

The triads are Hong Kong and Macao's answer to the Sicilian mafia, and have interests throughout the world in drug smuggling, prostitution and gambling.

"The reports on the penetration of triads here are still speculation," he said.

Speaking in Bandung at the initiation of Maj. Gen. Soebandy as West Java's new Police Chief, the four star police general explained that more facts have to be collected before absolute evaluations of triad activity can be made.

Maj. Gen. Soebandy, formerly the North Sumatra Police Chief, replaces Maj. Gen. Rukman S. whose new post is assistant to Gen. Banurusman.

Despite a lack of evidence, Banurusman refused to entirely rule out the possibility that the Chinese mobsters have broadened their operations in Indonesia Antara reported.

On Thursday Jakarta Police Chief Maj. Gen. Hindarto identified the unsolved murder of ethnic-Chinese businessman Nyo Beng Seng as being almost certainly triad-related.

The 57-year old owner of the Irama Tara cassette company, also reputed to have interests in gambling throughout Asia, was slain last month by masked men in his second-wife's mansion in Pluit, North Jakarta.

According to Hindarto, who was also present at yesterday's ceremony in Bandung, the police suspect the assassins to have been triad members.

"The murderers are probably Indonesians, but their modus operandi was similar to that of a triad," he revealed. "We know that triads always finish-off their opponents in this way."

Before his death, Nyo Beng Seng was notorious for arranging gambling trips overseas.

It is suspected that Beng Seng's gambling habits might have been the motive behind his murder.

Despite previously making strong assertions of triad activity, when pursued further, neither Banurusman nor Hindarto himself would substantiate their presence in Indonesia.

Nevertheless Hindarto continued to stress that embryonic triad networks certainly exist here.

He pointed to a narcotics syndicate in Bali and a underground chain in West Kalimantan which sells young women to Hong Kong as strong proof of the beginnings of triad activity in Indonesia. (mds)