Smuggling attempt of Rp 2.68 billion cash foiled
JAKARTA (JP): Customs and excise officials at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport have foiled an attempt to smuggle Rp 2.68 billion (US$326,830) in cash.
Tonny Soenanto, head of the Customs and Excise Office, said on Saturday that the money, in Rp 50,000 banknotes, was seized from Edward Mondong, a 30-year-old Indonesian, who was about to board a KLM flight to Singapore on Friday evening.
The cash, he said, was bundled into different amounts in two suitcases, weighing 100 kilograms altogether.
"The man had no permit to carry such an amount of money overseas. If proven guilty, he could be fined up to Rp 1 billion under existing regulations," Tonny said.
According to Government Regulation No. 18/1998, a written permit from Bank Indonesia, the central bank, is required for any Indonesian national who plans to carry more than Rp 5 million in cash abroad, he said.
Based on a preliminary investigation, Edward, a resident of Jl. Kayumanis, Matraman, East Jakarta, said the money belonged to a businessman who wanted to use it to pay his debts to his business partner in Singapore.
But the customs and excise officials did not believe Edward.
Tonny suspected that Edward might have other motives, such as attempting to convert the rupiah into other currencies, like the greenback.
"If he really planned to pay off a debt, why would he have had to do it in cash?" Tonny said.
The suspect is still under intensive questioning by the airport authorities. The KLM plane, flight number KL-838, was heading to Amsterdam with a stopover in Singapore.
Tonny said Edward was first spotted as he arrived at Terminal E of the airport with two big suitcases. He was driven in a luxury car, he said.
He and the two bags first "passed" the X-ray detector at the entrance gate of the terminal. Customs and excise officials later asked him to open the suitcases at the check-in counter.
"Our X-ray detected bundles of paper inside his suitcases which were the same size as banknotes," Tonny said. (ylt)