The suspects were nabbed after the local cops received a report, filed by PLN officers who had witnesses seeing them stealing the diesel fuel from a truck being parked at the PLN office's parking lot on March 26.
The suspects, identified as a father and son, stole the diesel fuel at night, Merauke Police Spokesman Adjunct Commissioner Ahmad Nurung said in a press statement that ANTARA received here Saturday.
The police officers who probed this theft case found several items of the suspects' evidence of crime, including a bag, fifteen 35-liter jerry cans, and a fuel suction hose, used for the fuel theft, he said.
The suspects -- one of them is identified as MR -- have been charged with violating Article 363 (2) of Indonesia's Criminal Code (KUHP) that can get them sentenced to nine years in prison, Nurung added.
The police stations under the responsibility of Papua police headquarters, whose administrative areas are located near the Indonesia-PNG border, are Merauke, Boven Digoel, Pegunungan Bintang, Keerom, and Jayapura City.
The Indonesia-PNG border remains vulnerable to cross-border criminal activities, including trafficking of marijuana.
In the early morning of Thursday, March 21, 2024, Papua police officers, for instance, arrested two PNG citizens for allegedly smuggling 51 packages of marijuana from their country into Papua.
They were arrested at around 2:15 a.m. local time in the neighborhood of Hamadi Hanurata, Jaya Selatan Sub-district, Jayapura City.
The suspects, identified as Junior Lenga and Rindox, carried 51 packages of marijuana that they had concealed in four sacks of rice.
The police investigators found that Junior Lenga was in the Jayapura city police's priority watch list, as he had escaped from the Abepura Penitentiary when jailed in connection with a drug smuggling case.
On March 22, 2021, police officers in Papua also arrested a citizen of PNG for being allegedly involved in a cross-border drug trafficking network.
The police personnel confiscated five sacks of marijuana from the detainee, named Gadafi Kuentaw Waropo, 18.
He was apprehended in Many Island of Jayapura Selatan Sub-district, Jayapura City, following the arrest of Beny Toway Waropo, 28.
To fight against cross-border drug trafficking operations, PNG Police in West Sepik Province has sought collaboration with the Indonesian police in Papua.
A total of 110 PNG citizens are being sentenced in connection with drug cases in the Doyo Penitentiary in Jayapura District.
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Related news: Papua Police arrest two PNG citizens for allegedly smuggling marijuana
Translator: Evarukdijati, Rahmad Nasution
Editor: Atman Ahdiat
Copyright © ANTARA 2024
