Soldier apprehended for alleged arms dealing

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.