Police interrogate five for stockpiling food commodities
TANGERANG (JP): At least five warehouse owners are being interrogated by police following the finding of vast stocks of food commodities on their premises, police said yesterday.
The distribution of some items -- including baby formula, cooking oil, instant noodles and flour -- began yesterday to help stabilize the soaring prices in local markets due to the shortage of stock.
Tangerang Police chief Lt. Col. Aryanto Budihardjo said the five people were believed to have intentionally hoarded the commodities for their own interests.
"None of them have been named as suspects so far, but if they are found guilty later, they will be sent to jail for between four months and 15 years," Aryanto said over the weekend.
They have been identified only as Mrs. Na, Tj, Ka, Ko, and M, whose ages range between 42 and 51. Besides acting as suppliers, they also own shops.
They own four private warehouses, including PT Kumpul and PT Pangan Elok Mandiri, which are major suppliers for traditional markets and supermarkets in Tangerang, 35 kilometers west of Jakarta.
The two other unidentified warehouses are located in Pasar Anyer traditional market and Jl. KH Hasyim Ashari in Cipondoh respectively.
During raids Friday, Tangerang Police intelligence officers broke into the warehouses of PT Kumpul and PT Pangan Elok Mandiri on Jl. Imam Bonjol, one of the town's main thoroughfares.
The officers, who have monitored activities at the warehouses over the past few days, said they found thousands of cans, bottles, sacks, barrels and packages of 31 types of commodities, mainly milk, cooking oil, sugar, flour, instant noodles.
Antara reported Saturday that a total of 32,000 cans of milk, which has tripled in price at local markets, were found in the warehouses.
At the 600-square-meter PT Kumpul warehouse, the team found -- among others -- thousands of boxes of instant noodles, hundreds of bottles and barrels of cooking oil, hundreds of sacks of flour and sugar.
Denial
During interrogation at the scene, the owner denied the stockpiling allegations, saying the items in her warehouses were at a normal level.
At PT Pangan Elok Mandiri, thousands of milk products, varying in brand name, packaging and size were found in the warehouse.
An employee said the mounting supply of goods in the warehouse was primarily due to sluggish demand.
Police found 800 25-kilogram sacks of sugar and 70 drums of cooking oil and other food commodities in a small warehouse in Cipondoh.
Huge stocks of powdered milk, sugar, cooking oil and instant noodles were also found at a Pasar Anyer warehouse.
Police immediately sealed the warehouses in an attempt to avoid riots possibly sparked by local people, most of whom have been unable to feed their children due to the lack of baby formula in the markets and the skyrocketing prices.
Tangerang Mayor Djakaria Machmud condemned the activities of the four alleged stockpilers.
"I want the police to arrest them because they have gone too far."
He said the four traders had inflicted great hardships on the local residents in order to reap benefits for themselves. (bsr)