TheJakartaPost

Please Update your browser

Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.

Jakarta Post

Six arrested over ‘18-ton fuel hoard’

Sr

Iman Mahditama (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Wed, March 28, 2012

Share This Article

Change Size

Six arrested over ‘18-ton fuel hoard’

Sr. Comr. Rikwanto: Jakarta police spokesman. (ANTRA/Reno Esnir)

The Jakarta Police’s special crimes directorate revealed on Tuesday that detectives arrested six people for allegedly hoarding 18.38 tons of subsidized fuel bought at numerous gas stations around Greater Jakarta.

The police investigation has allegedly found that the suspects intended to sell the fuel to businesses below market price.

“However, we were able to apprehend them before they could find a customer,” Comr. Hilarius Duha of the directorate’s natural resource unit alleged at a press conference.

The suspects were identified as Z, UN, MIM, Y, G, and LFL. The first five worked together in a ring, while LFL was arrested in a separate case.

All six were charged with fuel hoarding under the 2001 Oil and Gas Law and face up to four years’ imprisonment and up to Rp 40 million (US$4,360) in fines if found guilty.

Hilarius said that LFL was an employee at the operational division of waste-management company PT Gudang Tua, which manages the 110-hectare Bantar Gebang landfill in Bekasi, West Java.

“We believe that LFL used trucks to buy subsidized diesel fuel from fuel stations in Cileungsi [in Bogor, West Java]. He’d fill the tank up and then drained the fuel into jerry cans at a warehouse belonging to PT Gudang Tua, before going to another gas station and repeating the action,” he said.

Police are still investigating if LFL worked with gas station workers or other employees of PT Gudang Tua in the alleged crime.

Police seized more than 5.1 tons of subsidized diesel fuel contained in 256 jerry cans, as well as a truck used by LFL as evidence.

The other five suspects, police alleged, had hoarded subsidized diesel fuel and subsidized premium gasoline since early February.

“We confiscated 9.88 tons of diesel fuel and 3.4 tons of premium, along with two trucks, from them as evidence,” police spokesman Sr. Comr. Rikwanto said.

The five suspects were alleged to have been hoarding fuel from gas stations over four regions in Greater Jakarta: Cimone in Tangerang, Penjaringan and Cilincing in North Jakarta, and Bojong Gede in Depok.

State oil and gas company PT Pertamina’s West Java legal manager Istanto Gunadi, who attended the press conference, said that businesses should not buy fuel intended for the retail consumers. “For example, subsidized diesel fuel is sold at Rp 4,500 per liter and diesel fuel at Rp 8,000 per liter. Let’s say if a fuel hoarder buy 5 tons of the subsidized fuel, the difference in price can reach Rp 20 million,” he said.

Istanto alleged that Pertamina discovered that the suspects had usually gone to gas stations several times a day to buy subsidized fuel.

“They also deployed more than one truck to avoid suspicion,” he alleged. (png)

{

Your Opinion Matters

Share your experiences, suggestions, and any issues you've encountered on The Jakarta Post. We're here to listen.

Enter at least 30 characters
0 / 30

Thank You

Thank you for sharing your thoughts. We appreciate your feedback.