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)