Three nabbed for smuggling logs

Three nabbed for smuggling logs

JAKARTA (JP): Tanjung Priok Port Police (KP3) has arrested
three furniture businessmen for allegedly smuggling 200 cubic
meters of logs from South Kalimantan, an officer said on Friday.

KP3 chief Lt. Col. Edward Aritonang identified the suspects as
AS, ES and AZ -- residents of North Jakarta and owners of
furniture companies.

The three -- arrested on Thursday -- are now under intensive
police investigation at the KP3 office.

"The logs were confiscated from a ship last month. But we
needed time to build the case and to trace the owners as the
captain of the ship was only instructed to dock his ship in
Jakarta, while document clearance for the logs was not part of
the instruction," Aritonang said.

Total gross value of the logs -- from merantee, camphor and
keruing trees -- was estimated at Rp 60 million (US$8,700).

"The smuggled logs are of good quality wood. Mostly, they are
exported," Aritonang said, quoting the suspects.

He said the arrests were expected to give a "lesson" to those
trying to smuggle illegal wood from outside Jakarta.

"It's not easy to get legal documents for South Kalimantan's
logs, while at the same time, good quality logs are forbidden
from being transported outside the province.

"A South Kalimantan provincial regulation stipulates that raw
logs cannot be transported out of the province, so that the local
people's jobs to process the logs into ready-to-use wood are not
jeopardized," Aritonang said.

The three detained businessmen will be charged under Article
14 of Government Decree No. 28/1985 on Forestry, which carries a
maximum penalty of one year imprisonment or a fine of up to Rp 5
million. (emf)