Illegal Wood Trail Revealed, Storage Warehouse in Samarinda Was Raided by Gakkum LHK

SAMARINDA - The Environmental and Forestry Law Enforcement Agency (Gakkum) for Kalimantan Region has dismantled an illegal inter-island timber trade syndicate with evidence of hundreds of cubic meters of ulin wood suspected of originating from illegal logging.

Head of the LHK Regional Gakkum Office for Kalimantan, Leonardo Gultom, said his party had named a man with the initials PS alias R (51) as a suspect.

PS is known to be the warehouse manager who was used as a shelter for illegal wood.

This case was revealed starting from the action of the Quick Response Team of the Navy Base (Lanal) Balikpapan at the Semayang Port. Officers stopped a truck driven by F (24) with his kernet AF (17).

When examined, the truck was found to be transporting ulin wood with a legal certificate of forest product (SKSHH) document that did not comply with the provisions. The findings were then handed over to the LHK Gakkum Office for further investigation.

"After joint development with Balikpapan Naval Base and the East Kalimantan Police Criminal Investigation Unit, the joint team managed to trace the origin of the wood to a storage warehouse in the Loa Janan area, Samarinda," said Leonardo in Samarinda, Antara, Thursday, April 23.

The officers then secured the PS on Jalan Soekarno-Hatta KM 8, Samarinda-Balikpapan route, on April 21, 2026. In addition, the team also briefly secured SM (24), a pick-up driver suspected of transporting wood from a warehouse to another location.

In the disclosure of this case, investigators seized one unit of a truck loaded with teak wood as well as SKSHH documents that were suspected to be false or not in accordance with the provisions.

The PS suspect was charged with layered articles, namely Articles 12, 14, and 16 of Law Number 18 of 2013 concerning the Prevention and Eradication of Forest Destruction, as amended by Law Number 1 of 2023 concerning the Criminal Code.

"The suspect is threatened with a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a maximum fine of Rp. 2.5 billion," said Leonardo.

He emphasized that the success of the disclosure of this case was the result of cross-agency synergy. His party has also ordered investigators to continue to develop the case to uncover the intellectual actors behind the illegal timber trade network.

"This success is inseparable from the good synergy between the Gakkum Center, the Balikpapan Navy, and the Kaltim Police. We will not stop taking firm action against practices that damage our forest ecosystem," said Leonardo.