Mahogany logs smuggling foiled

The Tanjung Priok port authority foiled an attempt to smuggle 15.85 cubic meters of mahogany logs out of the country, H. A. Parining, the director of the customs office prevention and investigation of smuggling, said yesterday.

Parining said the logs, worth some Rp 30 million (US$13,876), were registered as 3,819 pieces of decorative stones to be shipped abroad by the Taiwan-bound Uni Onward Vay 393.

The case is now being handled by a team of the Tanjung Priok customs officers and will later be submitted to the court for trial, Parining said.

At the same time, a set of machinery -- presumably a lathe -- was found among copper tubes in an unsealed bag in a container from Taiwan, Parining said.

There were six bags, four of which were sealed with the seal of PT SGS, a Geneva-based surveying company which was appointed by the Indonesian government to inspect all outgoing and incoming goods, Parining said.

The other one has not been opened yet, he said, adding that the contents of the container were registered as copper tubes only.(arf)