T

he immigration office in Medan, North Sumatra, on Saturday deported 31 Chinese and Taiwanese citizens.

The police arrested the foreigners in Setia Budi Indah residential complex last July for allegedly committing cyber crimes.

They were deported to their respective countries after undergoing a series of examinations by the police.

Head of Medan immigration office, Lilik Bambang, said that of the 31 criminals, 11 from China were deported to Guangzou while 20 from Taiwan were deported to Taipei.

Lilik said the deportation had been conducted according to Law No. 6/2011 on immigration.

'€œAfter coordinating with representatives of their respective countries, we finally deported them,'€ Lilik said.

He said that according to Article 122 of Law No. 6/2011 on immigration, all the deported foreign citizens had been included on the list of people banned from entering Indonesia with a specified time limit.

'€œThe SOP [standard operational procedure] is like that. After being deported they are banned from entering Indonesia,'€ said Lilik, adding that his office had proposed that the deported foreign citizens were banned from entering Indonesia for the next six months to a year.

Separately, spokesperson of North Sumatra Police Sr. Comr. Helfi Assegaf said that his office had confirmed that no Indonesian had been the victim of the 31 deported foreign citizens'€™ cyber crimes.

Helfi said their crimes targeted Chinese and Taiwanese people.

'€œThey stayed in Indonesia while committing the crimes to avoid being tracked down by their respective law enforcers,'€ he said.

The police nabbed the 31 people in a luxurious house in a housing complex on July 27.

There were 14 females and 17 males. They did not resist the arrest but tried to destroy evidence. However, the police foiled the attempt.

Among the items the police were able to prevent from being damaged were six laptops, 65 cell phones, 12 computer keyboards, two GPS devices, two modems and banknotes in Chinese, Taiwanese, Thai, US and Indonesian currencies.

There were 112 Chinese bills worth 18,250 yuan (US$2,940), 60 Thai baht ($1.71), NT$6,000 ($189), Rp 1,250,000 ($92.50) and $10.

The police said that the mastermind behind their operation was a Chinese citizen with initials AB, who lived in Hong Kong.

AB acted as the fund provider who ordered William of Jakarta to take the 31 people to Medan. The international cyber crime syndicate had been operating at the complex for a month before they were arrested by the police.

The police earlier said that they would work together with the National Police to uncover the syndicate'€™s operations in Indonesia.

In May of this year, the Jakarta Police also arrested 33 Chinese residents in a raid on a house in Cilandak, Pasar Minggu district, South Jakarta, for allegedly committing cyber crime, confiscating a number of notebooks, mobile phones, modem devices, printers, handheld transceivers and identity cards from the suspects.