Man caught with fake insecticide stash

JAKARTA (JP): Police arrested a 22-year-old man late Monday for allegedly manufacturing fake insecticide for sale to the public under famous brand names, an officer said.

Head of the economic crimes unit Lt. Col. Saut Usman Nasution said on Tuesday that Heng Kui, alias Anen, was apprehended at a house on Jl. Serdang in Kemayoran, Central Jakarta.

Police confiscated 32 boxes of insecticide fluid bottles bearing the brand names Baygon and Hit. Each box contained 20 bottles.

Also seized were 31 cardboard boxes printed with the two brandnames, six sacks of used Baygon plastic bottles, 18 drums of kerosene, three drums containing a chemical liquid, two empty drums and several wooden rods which were believed to be used for mixing the liquids, Usman said.

Heng Kui told the media that he was hired by a man called Aseng, a resident of the West Java capital of Bandung, for Rp 30,000 per day to mix the liquids and bottle the products.

"We produced about 30 boxes per day." He claimed to know nothing about the distribution and sales of the products.

"Aseng takes care of everything," he said.

Aseng is still at large, Usman said.

The two, he said, had run their illegal business since March and had distributed thousands of bottles in the greater Jakarta area at a price of about Rp 9,000 each, compared to the retail price of about Rp 13,000 for the genuine products.

According to Usman, it was difficult to distinguish the genuine and the fake products at a glance. But he said the fragrance and effects of the two were markedly different.

"The fake Baygon is not deadly to mosquitoes, and it only makes people dizzy."

L. Tobing of PT Bayer Indonesia, which produces Baygon in Indonesia, refused to comment on the arrest.

Usman said it was not the first case in the capital involving adulteration or counterfeiting of well-known products.

"We have already found at least five similar cases for various products here, and we believe that there are still more." (emf)