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Police foil attempted smuggling of 17 protected animals

The water police directorate of the South Sulawesi Police foiled an attempt to smuggle 17 protected animals from Balikpapan in East Kalimantan to Makassar in South Sulawesi

Andi Hajramurni (The Jakarta Post)
Makassar
Thu, August 18, 2016

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Police foil attempted smuggling of 17 protected animals

T

he water police directorate of the South Sulawesi Police foiled an attempt to smuggle 17 protected animals from Balikpapan in East Kalimantan to Makassar in South Sulawesi.

The animals included three black eagles, two wild cats, two weasels, two otters and six owls. They were all kept at Makassar’s Soekarno-Hatta seaport.

South Sulawesi water police director Sr. Comr. Purwoko Yudianto said on Tuesday that the animals had been smuggled through a cargo service aboard the ship KM Madani Nusantara.

“The animals were put inside closed boxes, packed like packages, without the names of either the sender or the receiver. But our men found them before the animals were [delivered to their intended recipients],” Purwoko said.

Purwoko said a tip-off from the public had alerted Police to the case. Security personnel were then deployed to Soekarno-Hatta seaport before KM Madani moored on Monday.

Apart from seizing the animals, police detained two people from Makassar, identified as Ba and Sa. Both admitted to having been tasked with picking up the animals at the seaport on the orders of an unidentified person in Makassar.

The two were named suspects for allegedly violating Article 4 (4) of Law No. 5/1990 on the conservation of natural resources and the ecosystem, which carries a maximum penalty of a year in prison and a fine of Rp 50 million (US$3,800).

Purwoko said the investigation team was still looking deeper into the case to reveal the sender and the person who had ordered the animals. He said the animals had been intended for sale.

“What is important is that the animals have been saved,” he said.

The animals were handed over to the South Sulawesi Natural Resource Conservation Agency (BKSDA) on Tuesday.

They were reportedly in a weak state and no longer wild, most probably because of having been locked up for a long time.

The South Sulawesi head of BKSDA, Fery AM Liuw, said that for the time being the animals would be taken in transit cages to a conservation institution, before they would be released back to their habitat in Kalimantan.

“They will be taken care of at the conservation institution until they are ready to be released back to their original habitat,” Fery said.

Previously the agency has also foiled an attempt to smuggle the Cendrawasih bird from Papua to Makassar.

Fery said protected animals and plants were often smuggled through Makassar, either via seaports or airports.

He lamented that the agency’s limited personnel meant it could not optimize patrols.

Fery therefore called on the police and other parties to join forces in foiling smuggling attempts.

“We have to be in synergy with the police and other parties to improve patrols, because Makassar is prone to the smuggling of protected animals,” Fery said.

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