Batam Customs And Excise Secures Smuggling Of Lobster Seeds Worth IDR 26.9 Billion

KEPRI - Smuggling 266,600 lobster seeds was successfully thwarted by Batam Customs and Excise. The operation was carried out in the Jaya Resort Tourism Waters, Bintan Regency, Riau Islands. The state is estimated to have avoided a loss of Rp. 26.9 billion.

Head of the Batam Customs Main Service Office, Zaky Firmansyah, in his statement in Batam, Sunday, said that this disclosure began with an intelligence report received by his party regarding the high speed craft (HSC) which was suspected of carrying out an activity of smuggling lobster seeds to Malaysia on Saturday, October 12.

"Based on this intelligence information, the team carried out monitoring of the ship in question," Zaky said as quoted by ANTARA.

From this monitoring, he said, the Customs and Excise Team, which was carrying out the Sriwijaya Net Operation in the context of a strategic plan for sea surveillance that was layered, immediately pursued the suspected HSC.

"The pursuit operation was carried out quite long because the perpetrator had fled," he said.

However, the solid synergy between the Batam Customs and Excise team, PSO Batam, Special Customs and Excise of the Riau Islands using the BC11001, BC10029, BC1601 and BC20003 vessels managed to thwart the smuggling of these high selling-value fishery resources.

The team then secured the HSC measuring 12 x 2.5 meters using a Yamana 4x300 PK engine containing 53 boxes containing 266,600 lobster seeds.

The lobster seeds, he said, consisted of 261 thousand sand lobster seeds and 5,600 pearl lobster seeds, both of which had a selling value of Rp. 26.9 billion.

According to Zaky, the perpetrators continue to create a new mode of smuggling Indonesian lobster seeds abroad. However, the Customs and Excise team and other stakeholders continue to anticipate the perpetrators' new modes.

"Currently, the mode used by the intruders has switched, starting often to carry out activities at night. Currently carrying out activities during the day," he said.

"Of course, our team has anticipated changes in this mode by always conducting routine patrols, and other surveillance measures," he continued.

Zaky emphasized that lobster seed smuggling could be charged under Article 102A of Law Number 17 of 2006 concerning Customs with a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a fine of Rp. 5,000,000,000 (five billion rupiah) and Article 88 in conjunction with Article 16 paragraph 1 and / or Article 92 in conjunction with Article 26 paragraph 1 of the Law (UU) of the Republic of Indonesia Number 31 of 2004 concerning Fisheries as amended by Law of the Republic of Indonesia Number 44 of 2009 concerning Fisheries and / or Article 87 in conjunction with Article 34 of the Republic of Indonesia Law Number 21 of 2019 concerning Animal Quarantine, Fish, and Plants with the threat of a maximum prison sentence of 6 years and a fine of Rp. 3 billion.

For the sake of the survival of the lobster seeds, the officers then released the seeds into the Riau Islands waters.

Efforts to thwart the smuggling of lobster seeds in the waters of the Riau Islands almost every month occur. On Tuesday (3/9), Bea Cump released 275 thousand lobster seeds in the waters of Batam City near the 6 Barelang Bridge.

The lobster seeds were the result of a joint operation of Customs and Excise with a coast guard team in the waters of Topang Island, Meranti Islands Regency, Riau.

A week earlier, at the end of August, Customs and Excise also thwarted the smuggling of 177,300 baby lobster seeds worth Rp. 17.7 billion in the waters of Penampura Island and Abang Island.

Previously, the Riau Islands Special DJBC Regional Office together with the Directorate General of Marine and Fishery Resources Supervision (PSDKP) of the Batam Regional Office also succeeded in thwarting the smuggling of 795 thousand lobster seeds or fries worth Rp90 billion.