Thousands of bottles of liquor confiscated

JAKARTA: The Jakarta Customs and Tax Office announced Thursday it had confiscated 6,433 bottles of liquor and 29,056 fake tax ribbons from a warehouse in Bande-ngan Utara, North Jakarta.

The office's investigation team confiscated the alcohol and fake tax ribbons on Dec. 17 following a two months of investigations and monitoring.

Two suspects, identified only as A and K, were arrested during the raid. The office is still working to find TM, another suspect linked to the raid who is a Singaporean citizen.

"The suspects planned to sell this liquor without paying tax. If the suspect succeeded, the government would have lost Rp 4 billion in tax revenue," Jakarta Customs and Tax Office chief Thomas Sugijata said.

"This is the first time we confiscates illegal liquors in a building that also served as a worship place *for Confucians*," said office spokesman Evy Suhartantyo.

The office says it foiled five similar liquor cases in 2009. It had confiscated 78,633 bottles of liquor and more than 3 million fake tax ribbons. - JP