South Kalimantan Police Secures 2 Ships Transporting Wood From Encroached Forest

BANJARMASIN - The Directorate of Water and Air Police (Ditpolairud) of the South Kalimantan Regional Police (Kalsel) arrested two ships carrying thousands of processed wood and logs from forest encroachment.

"The ship KM Abdurrahman 11 carried 5,370 pieces of processed wood or 76.4352 cubic meters, and the ship KM Berkat Rahim was found 245 pieces of logs or 35.89 cubic meters," said South Kalimantan Dirpolairud Commissioner Takdir Mattanete, in Banjarmasin as reported by Antara, Friday, March 18.

The disclosure of the criminal act of illegal logging or illegal logging began with public information that there was suspicious activity on two ships crossing the Alalak River, Banjarmasin City on Monday (7/3).

The Sub Directorate of Gakkum Ditpolairud of the South Kalimantan Police led by AKBP Moch Isharyadi Fitriawan then moved quickly to examine the documents of the ship and the goods it was transporting.

As a result, the logs that were brought did not have legal documents as per the laws and regulations. The source of the wood also does not match the documents shown by the perpetrator during the inspection.

For 5.370 pieces of processed wood, including the types of jingah, tarap, tiwadak banyu and terntang wood, WY (35) was named suspect as a wood carrier. The suspect admitted to bringing wood from Tabatan Village, Barito Kuala Regency to be sold to Banjarmasin.

"So the modus operandi is to use UD Karya Bersama, whose permit is no longer valid, to make a memorandum of transport for processed wood," said Takdir, who released the case accompanied by Deputy Director of Polairud Polda South Kalimantan AKBP Andi Adnan Syafruddin with Head of Public Relations of the South Kalimantan Police Commissioner Mochamad Rifa'i.

Meanwhile, 245 pieces of logs dragged three suspects with different roles. First, AJ (42) is the wood carrier, PM (21) is the wood escort to the destination, and AB (42) is the owner of the wood.

According to the suspect's confession, the wood came from Tambak Bajai Village, Dadahup District, Kapuas Regency, Central Kalimantan to be sold to Banjarmasin.

The modus operandi is that the perpetrator uses a letter issued by the village head to legalize the timber being transported. Meanwhile, the results of police investigations show that they do not have a legal certificate of forest products (SKSHH) as a substitute for a log batch document (SAKB) issued by an authorized official.

The four suspects were charged with Article 83 paragraph 1 letter B of the Republic of Indonesia Law Number 18 of 2013 concerning Prevention and Eradication of Forest Destruction with a minimum threat of 1 year and a maximum of 5 years and a minimum fine of IDR 500 million and a maximum of IDR 2.5 billion.