Police bust gangs suspected of stealing export products
JAKARTA (JP): Police over the past two weeks have arrested members from two gangs suspected of having stolen over US$1.5 million in local company products bound for export.
The head of Jakarta Police Criminal Investigation Department, Col. Nurfaizi, said yesterday that the police arrested seven members belonging to the Rasihan gang and four from the Khadim gang. The gangs, named after their leaders, were caught in Jakarta and Bekasi.
According to Nurfaizi the pursuit took two weeks and was carried out by special police units known as Gegana.
The aggrieved companies included PT Jabatex, PT Nova Jaya Packing and Sea Land Service Inc.
All the companies export their products to the United States and European countries, including Italy, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, Nurfaizi said.
According to Nurfaizi, the gangs generally conducted their operations when the truck traffic into the Tanjung Priok port was heavy.
"At least 3,000 trucks come and go from Tanjung Priok port every day," he said.
Consequently, Nurfaizi assured, the areas in and around the port where the congestion occurs will be better managed in the coming days.
"The traffic jams are also part of the system. We also will look into this problem," he said.
The theft unit chief of the Jakarta city police, Capt. Carlo Thewu, explained that one of the targets of the Rasihan gang was PT Jabatex. With the assistance of paid-off container truck drivers, the gang operates by diverting the trucks into a warehouse before sending them back on their way to the port.
The Rasihan gang operates at the CMC warehouse in West Ancol and in another warehouse in Sunter Podomoro, North Jakarta.
Brains
Nurfaizi said the brains behind the gang was Rasihan, who also enlisted the help of the warehouse's security guards.
The Khadim gang ripped off PT Dunia Ekspres and PT Panca Motor.
"The Khadim gang often operated in the TSA warehouse located on Jl. Cakung Cilincing, North Jakarta.
The head of the City Police General Crimes Directorate Lt. Col. Gories Mere said a smooth system of cooperation facilitated the operations.
"There is an intellectual mastermind, the drivers of the container trucks and the warehouse security guards. There is also the group which provides trucks to transport the stolen goods and the fence who handles the stolen goods," Gories said.
Sisilia Lilis, the shipping section chief of PT Jabatex, a garment exporter, told The Jakarta Post that the company has lost at least US$200,000 in five export shipments to Europe and the U.S. since May this year.
The first time the company noticed that their export goods were being stolen was in May, during a shipment to the UK.
"We exported 516 cartons of garments valued at US$139,000 but our buyer complained that 176 cartoon were lost, which had a value of US$49,000," she said.
Because the container's seal was unbroken, Sisilia said, the importer took their complaint to PT Jabatex.
Meanwhile, David Pawlan, a buyer consolidator from Sea Land Service Inc, a U.S.-based exporting company, said his company had suffered at least US$1.5 million in losses since June this year.
He said he learned of the losses from his company's clients abroad.
"We reported the case to the police when in one particular case we lost too much, a month ago," he said.
He added that his company experienced the same kind of thefts in Taiwan and Guatemala. (01)