Mahogany logs smuggling foiled

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)