Tanjung Priok container theft suspects arrested
JAKARTA (JP): Tanjung Priok port police have captured five men, including a hardcore criminal, suspected of being behind a series of thefts at the container terminal.
Lt. Col. Murawi Effendi, chief of the Tanjung Priok port police, told reporters yesterday the hardened thief, identified by initials as KR, was apprehended attempting to break into a container parked at the First Cargo Terminal with two accomplices on the evening of June 28.
"KR's accomplices managed to flee, but we know their identities," said Murawi, adding that it was just a matter of time before they were arrested.
Murawi said that before the arrest of KR and his gang, PT Pelindo, the harbor authority, had received complaints from several companies that their containers had been broken into and goods stolen.
The firms were unable to seek compensation from PT Pelindo for the loss because many of them did not become aware of the theft until after the containers left the terminal because the contents of containers are usually examined at their stores.
Based on the complaints, the Tanjung Priok port police formed a team of detectives to catch the thieves.
At 9:30 p.m. on June 28, police spotted KR and his two accomplices, pretending to be driver's assistants there to pick up imported goods, in a truck heading toward the cargo terminal.
The officers, who recognized KR as a repeat offender in container break-in cases, followed the truck.
After selecting a container, the three broke its lock with large pincers they hid in the truck before entering the terminal.
Police, assisted by harbor security guards, then ambushed the suspects, capturing KR, but losing track of his two accomplices who ran away.
During the preliminary interrogation, KR admitted to several thefts and told the police they usually hid their loot in the truck to avoid the guard at the exit.
"The suspects have damaged the images of PT Pelindo and the Tanjung Priok police, as the agency responsible for the security there," said Murawi.
Leather
On May 13 the Tanjung Priok port police apprehended four persons believed to have stolen 2,300 sheets of leather from a container belonging to a private company. The leather products, valued at Rp 40 million (US$18,630), were imported by PT Indo Kulit.
Murawi said AL, a truck driver for the firm who was assigned to transport the leather, left Tanjung Priok at around 8 a.m.
Instead of taking the leather to PT Indo Kulit in Cimanggis, Bogor, he drove the truck to Tangerang and stopped at an empty house on Jl. Industri, where five accomplices were waiting.
They broke the container to steal the leather and later left the truck near the Balaraja toll gate in Tangerang.
The Tanjung Priok port police, who were informed by PT Indo Kulit about the loss, found the truck two days later. They captured four of the group late last month. The truck driver remains at large. (jsk)