Six arrested over fuel stealing, reselling

JAKARTA (JP): Police arrested six men on Monday suspected of stealing fuel from four trucks belonging to an oil transportation company, city police chief of detectives said on Tuesday.

Col. Alex Bambang Riatmodjo said the first three trucks each contained 24 tons of diesel oil, while the fourth contained 16 tons of diesel oil.

Alex identified the first four suspects as Ade Tatang, Wanda, Encoy and Asari, all of them are employees of the fuel transportation company PT Pasifik Sumber Segara (PSS), and the remaining two as Dedi Mulyadi and Budi, employees of the fuel distribution company PT Teguh Karya Manunggal (TKM).

"The first four suspects were supposed to transport four PT PSS trucks containing diesel and solar oil to three companies, namely PT Styrindo Mono Indonesia and PT Nisshoku Tripolyta in Merak, West Java, and PT Cisadane Raya in Karawaci, Tangerang," Alex told reporters at the Jakarta Police Headquarters.

"Instead, the four made a deal with Dedi and Budi of PT TKM. They drove the trucks to PT TKM's warehouse in Tigaraksa, Tangerang."

There were about seven to eight drums in each truck. Each drum, containing about 200 liters of oil, was worth up to Rp 80,000 (US$11.40).

Alex said Ade, Wanda, Encoy and Asari sold the drums to Dedi and Budi, who planned to resell the oil to other companies.

The potential buyers who wanted to buy the stolen oil at cheaper rates, had to run the risk of driving empty trucks into PT TKM's warehouse, where oil would be pumped from the drums to the trucks.

Upon receiving information from local residents in Tangerang that trucks were arriving at and leaving the warehouse at odd hours of the night, police arrived at the scene on Monday. They caught Dedi and Budi red-handed pumping PT PSS oil into empty PT TKM drums. (ylt)