Police officers among 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.