Five held for possession of grenades and bullets

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)