P

olice said Thursday they had arrested two people linked to international money laundering crimes on the Internet.

"The suspects were arrested two days ago in Medan *in North Sumatra*," National Police chief of criminal investigation division Com. Gen. Susno Duadji told The Jakarta Post.

"They are suspected of committing fraud via the Internet," he added.

Tempo Interaktif news portal identified the suspects as Hendrianto, a 45-year old Indonesian citizen and Singaporean Yap Kok Yong Carlson, 30, who were swooped on at the Swiss Bell Hotel in Medan.

Susno said the police were still pursuing four other members of the syndicate, namely Andreas Nicholas, a UK national, Ricard Pereira of Singapore, Phanos Tenizes of Cyprus and Christanto of Indonesia.

Susno said the four fugitives were already on an international wanted list of criminals.

"We are cooperating with the British Interpol to nab Andreas," he told tempointeraktif.com earlier Thursday.

The investigation, Susno said, began when the Austrian Embassy received a report from one of its citizens, Emmeran Fischer, who had fallen victim to the syndicate.

Fischer, Susno said, saw an ad-vertisement for cheap electronic goods at www.alibaba.com. On Dec. 8, 2008, Fischer met with the suspects at the MMTC Warehouse, on Jl. Williem Iskandar No. B-20 in Pancing, Medan.

Their transaction involved 32,000 units of electronic goods, including 5,000 Nintendo Wiis, 5,000 Nintendo NHL Games, 5,000 Nintendo Pro Evolution Games, 5,400 Sony PS3s, and 800 Apple iPhones.

"The transaction had a value of around US$1 million," said Susno. Fischer transferred the money to Bank Mega's branch in Batam, through the JP Morgan Chase Bank in New York.

The delivery was made to company named Anugerah Jaya Perkasa. However, when the delivery deadline came around on Dec. 20, 2008, the purchased goods never arrived in Vienna, Austria.

The offenders claimed bad weather had impeded the delivery, and requested more money to send the goods by sea.

"The victim then sent an additional $900,000 for the delivery," Susno said. "But the promise was still not upheld."

Following leads from the report, the police went to the warehouse and found two boxes containing thousands of packages.

However, when the packages were thoroughly searched, police revealed they contained nothing more than bricks and paper.

"Only three packages contained electronic goods and they were the samples used during the initial transaction," he said.

The police and the Report and Financial Transaction Analysis Center (PPATK) are currently investigating a possible money laundering operation through three bank accounts belonging to the suspects.