The police are probing an illegal organ trade involving a cop and an immigration officer, who are accused of helping traffickers send 122 Indonesians to Cambodia to sell their kidneys.

The Jakarta Police, with assistance from the Bekasi city police, recently arrested the low-ranking officer, the immigration officer and 10 traffickers, who are part of a human trafficking ring that prey on vulnerable job seekers.

National Police chief Gen. Listyo Sigit Prabowo said the ongoing investigation into the warrant officer showed that the police would not hesitate to take firm action against their own officers should they be found guilty of involvement in the schemes.

"We are processing the traffickers and the police officer involved in the trafficking scheme. We have never hesitated [to take firm action]," Listyo said on Friday, as quoted from the police news platform.

The officer with the rank of second adjutant inspector from Bekasi city police, identified only by his initials M, allegedly helped the traffickers move from place to place and use burner phones to avoid police investigation, according to Jakarta Police director for general crimes Sr. Comr. Hengki Haryadi.

The warrant officer allegedly received Rp 612 million (US$40,000) for his role. He is now charged with obstructing investigation under the 2007 Human Trafficking Law, which carries a maximum punishment of five years in prison.

The immigration officer from Bali, who was arrested on July 19, meanwhile, was accused of abusing his power and falsifying documents for victims to travel overseas. For each person he smuggled to Cambodia, the immigration officer received at least Rp 3 million.

The 10 traffickers currently in police custody are ring members. Nine of them were former organ trade victims who were accused of luring people from across Indonesia through social media into having their kidneys removed in Cambodia, and one person was accused of sending them to Cambodia for the surgery. The victims were promised Rp 135 million each.

"The victims agreed to sell their organs because they needed money. Most of them lost their jobs during the pandemic," Hengki told reporters on Thursday, as quoted by Reuters.

Hengki told The Jakarta Post on Sunday that all 122 victims had returned to Indonesia – some of whom “are still under observation of the police's team of doctors”.

But the police have yet been able to locate the positions of a number of other victims, whose testimonies would be required by investigators.

Hengki said the police would continue cracking down on human smuggling syndicates, adding that from June 10 to July 19, the police had rescued more than 2,100 victims of human trafficking across the country and named more than 800 suspects involved in the schemes.

The series of police investigations into human trafficking cases came after the government, acting on President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s instruction, overhauled on June 10 a human trafficking task force to ramp up its efforts to stop exploitation and protect vulnerable job seekers.

The changes include transferring the leadership of the task force from the Women's Empowerment and Child Protection Ministry to the deputy head of the National Police’s Criminal Investigation Department (Bareskrim) because the ministry had no authority to conduct criminal investigations into human trafficking cases.

Since then, the police have been probing more than 600 cases of alleged human trafficking nationwide.

The President has also instructed Listyo to take stern measures against police officers who enabled human traffickers.

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