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Smuggled mobile phones hidden under salted fish

The Customs and Excise Office in Palembang has successfully foiled an attempt to smuggle thousands of mobile phones and hundreds of laptops from a neighboring country into Indonesia through a local port

Yulia Savitri (The Jakarta Post)
Palembang, South Sumatra
Sat, December 7, 2019

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Smuggled mobile phones hidden under salted fish

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span>The Customs and Excise Office in Palembang has successfully foiled an attempt to smuggle thousands of mobile phones and hundreds of laptops from a neighboring country into Indonesia through a local port.

Two people allegedly involved in the smuggling were currently on trial at the Palembang District Court, Dwijo Muryono, the head of the Customs and Excise Office for eastern Sumatra, said in Palembang on Nov. 27

He said the arrests were made in May this year, but it took several months to unveil details of the case due to a lengthy investigation process. Furthermore, the Customs and Excise Office also needed approval from the district attorney for all the evidence they had gathered.

Based on information from residents, the local customs office seized two trucks carrying the smuggled gadgets on May 22 on Jl. Soekarno Hatta in Palembang on their way to Jakarta.

Inside the truck, the team discovered 5,700 Xiaomi cell phones, 328 Asus and Lenovo laptops and 40 Samsung tablets hidden under the sacks of jengkol (dogfruit), candlenut and salted fish.

Before being loaded onto the truck, the gadgets were smuggled on a boat that traveled by river to Tanjung Api-Api Port in Banyuasin regency, South Sumatra.

All the electronic gadgets were illegally brought into the country, mostly from Singapore. Furthermore, the team also discovered that the two Indonesians that were arrested planned to transport the electronics to Jakarta and Karawang, West Java.

"The state losses due to unpaid import duty could have reached Rp 1.2 billion [US$85,485.31] due to the smuggling," Dwijo said.

Palembang Customs and Excise Information and Counseling Division head Dwi Harmanto also said the smuggling attempt was connected to a mobile phone smuggling attempt that had occurred off the coast of Banten two weeks previously.

"We needed a bit of time to synchronize both cases. Usually, the process of inspecting evidence takes a lot of time to ensure they are authentic and imported gadgets," said Dwi on Thursday.

He further explained that smuggling usually thrived in locations such as rural, seaside ports in South Sumatra where there are many residents living across from each other, such as the Musi River in South Sumatra. With many residents living several meters from the river, there are many passageways for smugglers.

One of the areas most prone to smuggling was Sungsang Port in Banyuasin regency, he said.

"However, this type of gadget smuggling via the river and disguised in food produce sacks was the first of its kind to occur in South Sumatra," said Dwi.

In an attempt to tighten border patrol, Palembang Customs and Excise recently set up a security post at Tanjung Buyung, South Sumatra which is located near estuaries. Furthermore, the agency also plans to increase boat patrols and attempt to gather intelligence from the residents of the riverbank about smuggling rumors.

Following the conclusion of May 22's smuggling case, South Sumatra's Trade Agency head Iwan Gunawan admitted that the province's administration was too complacent on this issue, which resulted in a smuggling attempt that almost got away. (bry)

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