We laud the community's participation in this arrest. This smuggling attempt was successfully thwarted since the community provided information to our officeTanjungpinang (ANTARA) - The Riau Islands Customs Patrol Unit thwarted an attempt to smuggle 138 thousand sand lobster and pearl lobster seeds worth Rp14 billion that were suspected to be smuggled into Singapore.
Head of the Riau Islands Customs Regional Office (Kakanwil) Akhmad Rofiq stated that from the officers' enumeration results, sand lobster seeds and pearl lobster seeds were the two types of lobster seeds that were intended to be smuggled.
"We laud the community's participation in this arrest. This smuggling attempt was successfully thwarted since the community provided information to our office," Head of the Riau Islands Customs Regional Office Akhmad Rofiq stated on Monday.
The chronology of events began with the development of information from the community. Later on, the patrol unit readied officers at several points suspected of being passed by the lobster smugglers by sea, he noted.
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On March 26, at around 3:30 local time, officers observed a ship passing by at high speed in the Batam waters.
Suspicious of this behavior, the officer tried to approach and signal to the perpetrator to stop and to examine the speedboat. However, the perpetrators, on the contrary, drove the speedboat at a faster speed and attempted to evade investigation.
"Aware of not being able to escape at sea, the speedboat then ran aground on an island in Batam Island's waters and the perpetrators managed to escape through the mangrove forest," Rofiq stated.
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Later on, the officers managed to secure and confiscate evidence in the form of a fast boat and lobster seeds packed in 30 Styrofoam boxes.
All the evidence was secured by being hauled onto the Riau Islands Customs pier in Karimun District.
"Lobster seeds were immediately released into the waters around Karimun Island. It is a commodity with a high mortality rate," he remarked.
He later noted that lobster was one of Indonesia's natural resources, which if managed properly and exported in accordance with the provisions, would bring large amount of foreign exchange.
Rofiq affirmed that the Riau Islands Customs would always be ready to secure the government's policies in the context of national economic recovery.
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Translator: Ogen, Resinta Sulistiyandari
Editor: Fardah Assegaf
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