T

he Navy foiled an alleged illegal ship-to-ship transfer of supplies involving two Singaporean-flagged vessels in Indonesian waters last week, a senior officer has reported.

The Mapor patrol vessel intercepted and seized the tugboat An Kang last Wednesday at around 5:30 p.m. while it was transferring supplies to the oil tanker Pu Tuo San, the Navy’s First Fleet marine security unit commander First Adm. Dafit Santoso said.

The tanker managed to escape back to Singapore waters.

“The An Kang transferred supplies to the Pu Tuo San, such as food and ship spare parts,” Dafit told a press conference at Batam Naval Base in Batam, Riau Islands on Monday.

“We decided to intercept the ships because they were carrying out ship-to-ship transfer operations without a permit in Indonesian territory.”

The incident started when the First Fleet received information about the ship-to-ship transfer.

“A number of Indonesian laws were violated by these two vessels,” Dafit said.

A preliminary investigation found that the ship and its crew members allegedly violated the 2008 Seafaring Law, the 2011 Immigration Law and the 2006 Customs Law.

All of the tugboat’s 10 crew members of various foreign nationalities namely South Korean, Georgian, Chinese and Myanmar, along with the Indonesian skipper, were placed in custody at Batam Naval Base.

The 10 crew members have been accused of immigration violations and their case will be brought to the Batam Immigration Office.

“The violation is clear: [they] entered Indonesian territory without [immigration] documents,” Batam Immigration head Lucky Agung Binarto said.

Batam Customs and Excise Office head Susila Brata said the two ships allegedly transferred and took aboard supplies without customs clearance.

“The goods in question are not prohibited items but the transfer of supplies was carried without permission,” Susila said.

An Kang skipper Gaguk Kurniawan said he was only following instructions from the company operating the two ships in Singapore.

“We have often done it [ship-to-ship supply transfers] in the last two years. We don’t know why it has to be done in that particular location, maybe because it’s closer,” he said.

Dafit said that Navy ships patrolling along sea borders, including the waters bordering Singapore, had received instructions to be on full alert after authorities intercepted two vessels attempting to smuggle more than a ton of methamphetamine into the country via the waters surrounding Batam in February.

“Therefore, we will take action against any ships carrying anything deemed illegal in Indonesian waters,” he said, “what we did was a preventive measure.”

The Navy intercepted the Djibouti-flagged MV Philips in July and the Singapore-flagged MV Swift Hawk on Nov. 14 — both allegedly carried out “ship-to-ship transfers in Indonesian waters without permits”, Dafit said.