Police detain 74 fuel smuggling suspects
Police detain 74 fuel smuggling suspects
Rendi A. Witular
The Jakarta Post/Jakarta
The National Police detained 74 suspects, including six police
officers, during a two-week nationwide crackdown on fuel
smuggling, hoarding, mixing and theft.
National Police Chief Gen. Sutanto said on Wednesday the six
police officers were accused of obstructing investigations into
fuel smuggling by refusing to detain or investigate suspects
despite sufficient evidence.
"The police have thus far detained 68 suspects, including
(fuel) distributors and officials of (state oil and gas firm)
Pertamina, and six police officers," said Sutanto. He declined to
give the names and ranks of the detained police officers.
Earlier this month, Pertamina said oil theft and smuggling was
committed by low-ranking employees, including a cook, security
official, refinery operation official, tanker crew and a driver,
despite the huge losses resulting from the crimes.
Sutanto was speaking at a press conference after meeting with
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and government officials over
a planned fuel price hike.
Susilo's government announced earlier it would raise fuel
prices by an average of 50 percent early next month, to ease the
burden placed on the state budget by the massive fuel subsidy.
The fuel subsidy policy has long been abused by smugglers, who
reap huge profits by smuggling subsidized fuel products out of
the country, a crime that not only causes massive financial
losses for the state but also contributes to fuel shortages at
home.
There were worries that the announcement of the upcoming fuel
price increases would push smugglers to intensify their
operations and others to hoard fuel.
On the orders of the President, the police recently launched a
nationwide operation to curb fuel smuggling and hoarding, which
are thought to cause the state annual losses of over US$800
million.
The government believes that fuel smuggling, mixing, hoarding
and theft is only possible with the support of corrupt police
officers, military personnel and Pertamina officials.
The police are now beginning to shift their focus from sea
operations to land operations, cracking down in particular on
fuel hoarding by distributors seeking to profit from price
disparities when fuel prices are raised next month.
"There are indications that the level of fuel smuggling at sea
is declining. Now we are focusing on land operations, although we
still have several sea operations under way," Sutanto said.
He said the decline in smuggling at sea was the result of the
police's success in breaking up fuel smuggling syndicates in
Batam, which were responsible for 70 percent of fuel smuggling in
the waters of western Indonesia.
The police have launched operations against fuel smugglers in
Sumatra, Kalimantan, Central Java, Jakarta, East Java, South
Sulawesi, North Sulawesi and Papua.