Five held for possession of grenades and bullets
JAKARTA (JP): Depok Police have arrested a group of five men in separate occasions for alleged possession of hand grenades and hundreds of bullets.
The arrests were made on Tuesday and Wednesday, Depok Police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Amhar Azeth said on Wednesday.
He said that during police questioning, the suspects insisted that the grenades were solely for "hunting purposes".
"We have received information that these five men had taken out an order for the purchase of 2,000 M-16 bullets ... the grenades and bullets were to be sent to Aceh," Amhar told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.
When asked if the grenades had any connection with a couple of recent train incidents, involving explosives in Greater Jakarta, Amhar said police were also investigating the possibility.
Three live grenades were planted on railroad tracks in Lemah Abang, Bekasi early in January. Last month a bomb exploded on a railway bridge over Cisadane River in Serpong, Banten. Both incidents remain unresolved.
Amhar added that police were on the lookout for a man, identified only by his initials, HM, in Medan, North Sumatra, for allegedly funding the purchase of the grenades and bullets.
Depok Police sources identified the first two suspects arrested on Tuesday night as Harpin, 32, and Syamsul Bachri, 28.
Both were arrested at a rented house on Jl. Rumput, in the Pasir Gunung Selatan subdistrict of Cimanggis, Depok, at 8 p.m. on Tuesday.
Amhar said that from the house, police confiscated five grenades, 320 M-16 rifle bullets, and nearly Rp 12.5 million (US$1,250) in cash.
"A military officer acted as a buyer of the grenades. When the suspects produced the goods, police arrested them," Amhar said.
A Depok Police source identified the military officer as Maj. Kus Arisena of the Army Strategic Reserves Command (Kostrad) Airborne Headquarters in Cijantung, East Jakarta.
"Kus placed the order for M-16 bullets. The suspects invited Kus to their home, where the transaction took place," the source said.
Harpin, according to the police source, is a former member of the Kostrad Airborne Unit in Bandung, West Java. This, however, was denied by Amhar.
"We hadn't heard about that until now. What we have heard is that Harpin used to be the director of Dharma Nusantara Legal Aid Institute, Central Jakarta. But we have not verified this yet," Amhar told reporters.
Harpin is a resident of Kampung Waru in the Jati Waru subdistrict of Parung, Bogor, while Syamsul is an Acehnese trader, who also lives in Parung.
Amhar said that police suspected the ammunition was funded from the sale of marijuana in Aceh.
"We can however only confirm this once we have solid proof," Amhar said.
Police detectives made their latest arrests at 5 a.m. on Wednesday.
Refusing to identify the three remaining suspects, Amhar only said that "Han" was arrested at his home in Tangerang, for possession of marijuana, while "ZF and IK" were arrested in Parung, for possession of a US-made Colt gun and about 100 bullets.
"These three men have told us that the man we are looking for in Medan, HM, funded their operations by initially providing the money to ZF, who later handed the money to Syamsul Bachri," Amhar said.
He said the three men were expected to lead the police to the supplier of the grenades and ammunition. (ylt)