Soldier apprehended for alleged arms dealing

Abdul Khalik, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

After conducting covert operations for weeks, the city police nabbed on Thursday evening a military officer, who sold guns at Pintu Air, Pasar Baru in Central Jakarta and confiscated two guns as evidence.

City police general crime unit chief Sr. Comr. Mathius Salempang said on Friday that the suspect was arrested while selling a gun to an undercover police officer posing as a buyer.

"We have targeted him for weeks. Many have reported to us that he often sells guns in Pasar Baru. When the suspect offered our informant a gun, he reported it to us and we sent an officer as a buyer," he said.

Displaying the guns confiscated in the operation to reporters, Mathius said that the suspect, identified only as A, surrendered without much resistance after realizing he was surrounded by police officers.

Mathius, however, refused to reveal the identity of the suspect, saying that they were still interrogating him and were looking for the person who supplied the guns from Bandung, West Java.

"We have sent officers to Bandung to trace the man from whom the suspect got the guns. We have identified him (the supplier) as D. However, when we got there, he had already disappeared," he said.

A police source at the city police headquarters, however, said that the suspect was a TNI non-commissioned officer identified as Second Sergeant Alex M, and had long been known as a supplier of illegal guns.

"You can buy a gun at Pasar Baru for only Rp 5 million. He is one of the suppliers. He gets the guns from Bandung," the source told The Jakarta Post.

Military armaments factory PT Pindad is located in Bandung, and many have speculated that a number of guns had been smuggled out of the factory to be sold illegally.

Mathius said that police were still trying to find out where the suspect got the guns from because neither gun had an identification number.

While dismissing speculation that the guns came from the military, city police chief Insp. Firman Gani confirmed that each of the guns was an FN, and were factory made, not home-made guns.

"We don't know yet where the guns came from. But guns like that are not home-made. They could be smuggled guns," he said without elaborating.

Illegal guns have been blamed for the increasing number of armed robberies in the capital.

A police source has estimated that around 100,000 illegal guns are circulating in Jakarta, and most of these guns are used for robberies or to conduct other crimes as the guns can change hands easily for just a few million rupiah.