Police confiscate over 100,000 bottles of liquor

JAKARTA (JP): The authorities announced on Saturday the seizure of more than 100,000 bottles of spirits over the past three weeks in operations by the City Police Force in the greater Jakarta.

The special police operation is separate from the ongoing military-sponsored Operation Cleansing.

The latest seizure took place on Friday evening when around 100 police from the city police headquarters and the West Jakarta police precinct raided the Dumai shop on Jl. Hajar Baru in Cengkareng district, West Jakarta.

"There were tens of thousands of bottles seized during the raid. Around 4,000 bottles were carried here while the rest were taken to the West Jakarta police precinct," Capt. Syaiful BP, chief of the operation unit at the General Affairs Department of police headquarters told the Jakarta Post Saturday.

Syaiful said the Dumai shop previously had a license to distribute spirits, but the owner did not extend it when it expired last year.

"When I asked the owner why he did not renew the license, he said `I thought everything was under control'," Syaiful said, refusing to divulge the identify of the shop owner.

Friday's seizure brought the total of contraband liquor confiscated to 100,000 bottles since police launched the intensive anti-spirits operation in the greater Jakarta area in the wake of the murder of Brig. Gen. TMF Tampubolon, a former group commander of the army elite red beret corps.

The one-star army general is believed to have been murdered by four drunken men.

"We had, in fact, routinely staged an anti-spirits operation since early the year. But, the operation intensified after the murder," said Syaiful, adding the operation was run outside of and prior to the army-sponsored Operation Cleansing.

Another 40,000 bottles of spirits were seized in the first 10 days of Operation Cleansing . It started on March 11.

Aside from street-side shops, which had no license to sell spirits, Syaiful said, the city police also checked licensed wholesalers.

"We often discover some distributors selling C-class spirits although they are only licensed to sell B-class alcoholic beverages," Syaiful said.

Indonesia categorizes alcoholic beverages into three classes, according to the percentage of alcohol contained. A-class spirits contain up to five percent alcohol. This classification includes beer. B-class drinks contain from five to 20 percent alcohol, and C-class liquor is 20 percent or more.

Traders need licenses from the authorities to sell B-class and C-class beverages. Down

Syaiful said alcoholic beverage producers were disgruntled at the operation because it was having a heavy impact on their business.

"Some of them have come here to try to negotiate to get us to curb the campaign. But there is no way we are going to do that. We will continue the operation until there is a stop order from the top," Syaiful said.

In a related development, alcoholic beverage distributors are complaining that their turnovers have dropped almost 50 percent since the start of Operation Cleansing.

The owner of the Sari Agung shop on Jl. Bekasi Barat, East Jakarta, claimed that due to the operations, his turnover is down to just a few crates from the 20 to 30 crates per week he usually sells.

The owner of the Bintang Mas shop in Mampang Prapatan district, South Jakarta, said his sales have fallen from 50 crates to 20 crates per week.

Many street-side shops, which used to sell spirits stealthily before the operation, have had their contraband confiscated.

"Why do they only raid small-scale traders. Why don't they close the factories?" a street-side shop owner on Jl. Mampang Prapatan, South Jakarta, lamented.

Some street-side traders are continuing to sell alcoholic drinks illegally despite the threat of raids because of the large profit involved.

"If I only sell cigarettes, snacks and cold soft drinks, the profit is negligible. That's why I sell beer and anggur (locally made B-class spirits). For me, there is no problem as long as the people who buy it do not it drink here," Ahyar, a street trader in Pasar Minggu, South Jakarta, said. (jsk)