For arrested for making, selling guns

JAKARTA (JP): Four men have been arrested for allegedly producing and selling homemade pen-shaped guns.

City Police Spokesman Lt. Col. E. Aritonang said yesterday that police examinations of the weapon, classified as a handgun, had proved that it was accurate.

"It is accurate up to five meters but it can fire much further than that," he said.

The gun consists of a 20-centimeter-long and two-centimeter- diameter metal tube.

"It works like a ballpoint pen," he said. It has a trigger which works more like a hammer, a firing pin, a single .22 mm- caliber bullet, an extractor spring and a muffler.

The suspects offered the weapon in a knockdown kit.

"Producing and selling handguns without a special license is illegal in this country," said Aritonang.

According to a law issued in 1951, those found guilty of illegally producing, selling, using and possessing handguns can be punished with the death penalty.

The four suspects were arrested in separate raids in Jakarta and Lampung recently, said Aritonang.

Oden Sahromi, 34, and Rahmat bin Sarmili, 42, are believed to be the masterminds behind the scam.

Rahmat was busted Tuesday evening at his house in Cilandak, South Jakarta. Police seized three knockdown kits from his house.

Oden was arrested at his house in Lampung in southern Sumatra Wednesday with a knockdown kit, .32 mm and .22 mm revolvers, 32 .22 mm caliber bullets and several lathes.

"Oden is the alleged distributor and Rahmat the alleged producer," said Aritonang.

He said that Rahmat could have designed the weapons by himself "but he must have bought the bullets from other parties."

The other two men arrested were the alleged dealer, Abdul Rohim alias Dudung, 38, and Rahmat's assistant Didi Supriadi, 39.

Abdul was arrested Tuesday while selling a knockdown kit and a .22 mm caliber bullet for Rp 700,000 (US$264.15) to an undercover police officer in Cipinang Muara, East Jakarta.

Aritonang said the suspects confessed that they had made the weapons themselves.

However, the police were still looking at the possibility of other parties' involvement, he said.

The police had a list of people who had bought the weapon from the four suspects, he said, but refused to say how many people were on the list.

Many of the buyers might have considered the weapons as toys because they did not look like regular handguns.

"We are going to get all the sold weapons back. People who have bought the weapons should return them to the police," Aritonang said.

He said buyers who did not return the weapons were risking facing the death penalty or a maximum of 20 years imprisonment. (cst)