Taxi driver arrested for robbery

JAKARTA (JP): Police have apprehended a taxi driver and his accomplice who they believe specialized in robbing taxi passengers, especially foreigners, in the capital.

City police detective chief Col. Gories Mere said Saturday driver AS of the President Taxi company and his friend ED were busted Friday at midnight while trying to extort money from a female passenger who was an undercover police officer.

"Preliminary investigations revealed that the two suspects have been involved in a series of similar crimes and most of their victims were foreigners," he said.

Gories said the arrest of the two had been set up by his officers with the help of two undercover female police detectives at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport.

On Friday, he said, officers Arnette and Fifi were dispatched to the airport, pretending to be newly arrived foreigners.

Attired in smart dresses with expensive-looking leather bags, wristwatches and jewelry, the two officers -- heavily monitored by their male colleagues from a distance -- began playing out their roles.

"While Fifi took a cab to a place in Central Jakarta and nothing unusual happened, officer Arnette took a President Taxi cab and asked the driver (AS) to be taken to Hotel Shangri-La, also in Central Jakarta," Gories said.

One kilometer after leaving the airport, AS suddenly pulled his cab over to the side of the road and picked up a man (later identified as ED), who appeared to be waiting for him.

"When Arnette asked the driver about the man, AS explained that he was his friend, who lived near the taxi pool close to the that place," Gories said.

The driver told the undercover officer that he would drop his friend off later, he said.

Probably attempting to check that his passenger was a real foreigner, AS first drove his car around the Pluit area in North Jakarta, instead of heading toward Hotel Shangri-La on Jl. Karet Pasar Baru Timur, the officer said.

AS later drove to Tanah Abang and stopped about 50 meters from the hotel.

"This time, AS asked for money to buy gasoline, but Arnette refused, saying that she would pay the bill only if he could take her to the hotel," Gories said.

The driver then went mad and threatened to kill the undercover officer.

"One of them said: 'I have a wire... I am not afraid to use this'. And they kept on threatening her."

Worrying about Arnette, the detectives who had carefully followed the taxi from the airport, then pounced.

"We feared that if we were too late, the crooks would have hurt our officer. We couldn't take that risk," Gories added.

From the suspects, the police seized wires, a sickle, an Automatic Teller Machine (ATM) card and a Singapore phone card.

"Obviously the ATM card and the phone card did not belong to the suspects. So they were probably taken from other victims." Gories added.

He said that police would continue similar operations to clamp down on the escalating crime wave against taxi passengers. (edt)