What happens to smuggled goods?

What happens to smuggled goods?

From Kompas

The public can follow the success of the Directorate General of Customs in confiscating smuggled goods on the TV news and in the newspapers from time to time. The latest success was at Tanjung Priok port in Jakarta on Oct. 10, 2000 when household articles, office equipment, electronic goods and fabrics were confiscated. Recently, Customs has also managed to confiscate luxury cars, decorative lamps, used trucks, firearms, ammunition and narcotics.

Except for firearms and narcotics, which are categorized as dangerous goods and therefore subject to special treatment, I would like to know what the Customs (the government) does to smuggled goods, particularly after they have been legally processed. Are they kept and piled high in the Customs' warehouses? Have they ever been sold by the Customs? If so, where and when?

Goods like television sets, VCD players, radios, household articles, decorative lamps, sundries and used trucks (confiscated by the Customs), are, in my opinion, easy to sell in the market openly, even more so if Customs sell them below the normal price (they are smuggled goods, aren't they?). For example, color TV sets worth Rp 2 million per unit at market price, can be sold to the public at Rp 1 million to Rp 1.3 million each. And the funds raised from the such sales could be allocated to social welfare programs.

When these goods are to be sold, I think the Customs' directorate general could periodically lease space in, or use, certain shopping centers like Sarinah or Pasar Raya, or sell the goods directly in the Customs' directorate general's compound depending on the availability of confiscated goods.

I believe that the regional Customs' offices could do likewise considering that other ports around the country are not free from smuggled goods either.

AS SIAGIAN

Jakarta