A Coffee Thief Ready To Harvest Resah Garut Farmers Arrested

JABAR - The police together with the community arrested a harvest-ready coffee thief who had been troubling coffee plantation farmers, Ciburial Village, Leles District, Garut Regency, West Java (West Java).

"The perpetrator and the evidence have been brought to the Leles Police Headquarters for further investigation," said Leles Police Chief AKP Wawan in Garut, Tuesday, June 17, confiscated by Antara.

He said the theft on the coffee plantation land in the Ciburial area had caused unrest for farmers, especially before the coffee harvest.

The theft of coffee, he said, has occurred several times, perpetrators in taking coffee beans often destroy trees that are still flowering and bear young fruit, causing even greater losses.

"The perpetrators not only stole the harvest, but also damaged the coffee plant by slashing the branches of the coffee tree," he said.

The police chief said that the theft made coffee farmers together with a number of police personnel carry out day and night patrols around coffee plantations.

The farmer patrol, he said, finally resulted in catching two foreigners suspected of stealing coffee beans in the Panyeuseupan Block, Ciburial Village by slashing tree trunks to take coffee beans that were immediately put in sacks.

He conveyed that the results of the coordination managed to arrest one person, and another perpetrator managed to escape into the forest, then the perpetrator with the initials R (27), a Garut resident, was secured along with the evidence to undergo a legal examination.

"The other perpetrators managed to escape towards the forest and are currently still being chased by the police," he said.

He revealed that the alleged perpetrator had committed theft three times before the coffee harvest season, the theft was sold for necessities of life.

As a result of the harvest ready coffee stolen as much as two sacks or weighing 60 kilograms, he said, causing coffee farmers to experience material losses of around Rp. 5 million.

Furthermore, coffee beans thieves were detained for further legal examination and charged with Article 362 of the Criminal Code concerning theft with a penalty of five years in prison.