Police seize shipload of illegal logs
Evi Mariani, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The Jakarta Police confiscated a shipload of undocumented logs that arrived here from Central Kalimantan, an officer revealed on Friday.
Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Tjiptono said the force had long suspected illegal logs were being smuggled through Sunda Kelapa Port in North Jakarta.
"The 1,070.63 cubic meters of logs were aboard the Juika Jaya traveling from Central Kalimantan. The ship berthed at Sunda Kelapa Port," he said.
Sunda Kelapa, the oldest port in the country, is smaller than Tanjung Priok Port. However, it still serves medium-sized ships carrying fish, logs and other goods.
On Nov. 1, a team from the Jakarta Police's environmental crimes division began investigating the ship after a tip from the City Forestry and Agriculture Agency.
"The volume of the logs was quite large. I estimate the value of the logs is at least Rp 1 billion," the head of the environmental crimes division, Adj. Sr. Comr. Ahmad Haydar, said on Friday.
The Jakarta Police detained the ship, confiscated the logs and questioned several witnesses including the manager of the ship, Jack Annil, who has been named a suspect in the case.
The forestry agency became suspicious of the ship because Annil only had valid documents for 500.54 cubic meters of logs.
Some 874 cubic meters of the confiscated logs were meranti, a mahogany-like wood usually used for plywood and veneer. The remaining 196 cubic meters were from various types of wood.
Police confiscated all of the logs and transported them to the forestry agency's wood storage yard in Pondok Pinang, South Jakarta.
The agency, along with the Jakarta Trade Agency and the Jakarta Prosecutor's Office, will eventually auction off the logs.
If prosecutors pursue a case against Annil, he could be charged under Article 50 of Law No. 41/1999 on forestry.
The article states that anyone who transports, possesses or receives forestry products without valid documents faces a maximum of five years in prison and a maximum fine of Rp 10 billion.
Illegal logging is a major problem in Indonesia and one that President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has promised to address during his first 100 days in office.
Critics blame weak law enforcement for the problems. They say numerous ships arrive at Sunda Kelapa Port carrying undocumented logs but police and civilian investigators rarely launch serious investigations.