"The suspects Andri Satria Nugraha and Anita Setia Dewi were arrested on Tuesday (May 9) at 09.45 p.m. local time," Director of General Crimes at the National Police's Criminal Investigation Department (Bareskrim Polri) Brigadier General Djuhandhani Rahardjo Puro said here Wednesday.
Puro said the two suspects were apprehended at Sayana Apartment, Kota Harapan Indah residential area in Bekasi District, West Java.
The police investigators had named them as suspects of this human trafficking case on Tuesday afternoon, he added.
Following the arrest, the police investigators searched for evidence at Andri Satria Nugraha's house on Palem Hijau 2 Street in Bekasi City, and also at Anita Setia Dewi's house in the Springlake Sumarecon Apartment.
The police started to investigate the case after the families of the 20 victims lodged a report to the police against the recruiters who trafficked them to Myanmar.
The victims were first lured into jobs in Thailand but ended up in Myanmar. They were duped and promised jobs, such as customer service officers. Instead, they were forced to work as online scammers.
Earlier last week, the Indonesian embassies in Yangon and Bangkok rescued the 20 victims from Myanmar's district of Myawaddy, where fighting between the army and armed resistance groups has intensified.
The victims were evacuated to the borders of Thailand.
The evacuation took place in two rounds with the first four people getting evacuated on May 5 while 16 others were rescued on the next day. The citizen protection team at the Indonesian Embassy in Bangkok took the victims to the Thailand capital.
The repatriation of the victims from Thailand is still underway.
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Translator: Laily Rahmawaty, Sri Haryati
Editor: Rahmad Nasution
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