Police unveil auto theft syndicate
Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Police say they have smashed a car-theft ring operating mainly in Bali and Jakarta, which is also capable of producing a range of fake documents, including for stolen cars.
"The group mostly targets rented cars. They rent cars and send all the information about the cars to their accomplices in Jakarta. The group immediately produces fake documents to enable them to take the cars out of the city without any suspicion from the police," Jakarta Police auto theft chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Boy Rafli Amar alleged Monday.
Three of the group's five members had been arrested between March and July 4.
Police first captured Budi, who had allegedly stolen cars from several car rental outlets in Kuta, Bali. After interrogation Budi implicated Herman, alias Ahwat, who was also arrested.
Herman was accused of being a middleman who passed the stolen cars to Yongki, alias Erwin or Tusai. He is still at large.
Based on Herman's statement, police then captured Tan King Sui, alias Asui, who allegedly committed the document forgery.
"From Asui's home in Sunter Agung, North Jakarta, we seized evidence, including devices to produce fake documents," Boy said.
The professional group was not only capable of producing fake vehicle registration license numbers issued by the police, but also of producing fake Jakarta IDs, family IDs and tax arrears receipts for vehicles issued by the city administration.
"The group is really professional ... only experts can distinguish between the fake documents they produce and the original ones," Boy said.
Boy said Asui had admitted committing the forgery for more than three years, producing about 50 fake documents.
"But, of course, we believe that the figure is far higher than only 50 as we found hundreds of blank forms in Asui's house."
Police are also searching for another suspect called Ahan, alias Agus.
Boy played down the possibility that police officers were involved in the ring.
"So far, all the suspects are civilians," he said.
In addition to the group, police had also arrested B.S. Dharma Putra for allegedly stealing eight cars from Otto Rental Cars.
"He has sold those cars to other people at a very cheap price of between Rp 30 million (about US$3,600) and Rp 40 million," Boy said. Most of the vehicles were Toyota Kijang vans.
Stolen cars are often used by criminals during crimes to avoid being traced. A bomb planted in a stolen car, for instance, was detonated outside the residence of then Philippines ambassador Leonides T. Caday in 2000. The ambassador was severely injured and two of his Indonesian staff killed.
In the first three months of the year police have received 1,940 reports of auto theft. A total of 6,264 auto thefts were reported last year.