T

he police say they will launch an operation to crack down on the gangs of thieves and hoarders of crude palm oil (CPO) in North Sumatra who have been active throughout the province for years.

North Sumatra Police chief Insp. Gen. Wisjnu Amat Sastro said that the theft and hoarding of CPO had been an “open secret” in the province and that he had ordered officers to crack down on the practice.

“Our main target is to catch those who hoard stolen CPO. It won’t be hard to catch them. The illegal activity is very obvious,” Wisjnu said when launching the anti-CPO theft operation at North Sumatra Police headquarters in Medan on Monday.

Wisjnu said he hoped that the operation would be fruitful, so that the community and those who had invested in the palm oil sector could feel safe.

Every stakeholder, Wisjnu said, including local residents and the Indonesian Military (TNI) units stationed in North Sumatra, should cooperate with the police to stamp out the illegal activity, he said.

“Let’s unite to overcome the problem. It has become a national issue, as the nation’s revenue from CPO from North Sumatra is quite significant,” Wisjnu said.

According to data from state-owned plantation operator PT Perkebunan Nusantara V (Persero), the export of animal fats and vegetable oils, including palm oil, comprised 42.18 percent of North Sumatra’s exports in the first quarter of 2012, contributing US$2.64 billion to the province’s foreign exchange.

North Sumatra Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Heru Prakoso said that the police had launched the operation following complaints from plantation owners who said that CPO theft had been rampant throughout the province for several years.

Heru said that the police had identified three centers where the CPO hoarding was most prominent: Belawan — the principal port of North Sumatra, about 30 kilometers from Medan — and sites in Labuhan Batu and Asahan regencies.

“We will focus our attention on those three areas as we have found many locations where stolen CPO has been hoarded,” Heru said.

Other hot spots for the theft or hoarding of CPO included Langkat, Serdang Bedagai and Deli Serdang regencies and Binjai municipality, Heru said.

Contacted separately, the secretary of the North Sumatra chapter of the Indonesian Palm Oil Entrepreneurs Association (Gapki), Timbas Ginting, said that the association’s members had voiced concern on rampant CPO thefts, especially in Asahan, Labuhan Batu and Batubara.

Timbas added the most common modus operandi used by thieves was to force CPO tanker drivers to stop while in transit, where the thieves would siphon off a portion of their load.

Timbas said that different gangs of thieves might stop a single CPO tanker several times in a single trip.

“The tankers are forced to siphon their load along the road, which might reach 30 kiloliters of CPO each time. Imagine the amount of losses that businesses will incur if the tankers have to drain off their load at a number of locations,” Timbas told The Jakarta Post on Monday.

He said many palm oil businesses had suffered huge losses due to the CPO thefts, which he claimed had been ignored by corrupt police officers and TNI troops.

“They [the police and TNI] conduct operations sporadically, which leaves an impression that they are not serious in stamping out the illegal activity,” Timbas said.

Timbas said that he expected that the police would make good on their promises in the new operation and catch thieves.

“They should be punished severely to serve as a deterrent,” Timbas said.