Police Helicopter Chasing With Ghost Ships In Babel Waters, Reckless Captain Struggles Into Mangrove Forest

BABEL - The Polairud Directorate of the Bangka Belitung Islands Police has secured an unidentified ship unit or commonly called a ghost ship after a helicopter chase in the waters of the Bangka Strait.

"The ship without an identity was secured last Saturday at around 10:00 WIB in the Tanjung Jati mangrove forest, OKI Regency, South Sumatra Province with the final coordinates of the ship's stopping point (S 02.58'.57.3" E 106.02'.05,0")," said the Head of the Bangka Belitung Islands Police, Inspector General Anang Syarif Hidayat, in Mentok, quoted from Antara, Monday, June 7.

The existence of the ghost ship was received by officers from local fishermen on Saturday, June 5 at around 06.30 WIB. An unnamed ship passed through Mentok waters at high speed and was suspected of carrying illegal cargo.

Following up on this information, the Wadirpolairud of the Babel Islands Police AKBP Irwan Deffi Nasution and Iptu Asmadi coordinated with the BKO helicopter pilot at the National Police Headquarters.

Then at 07.30 WIB, a briefing was carried out for personnel and helicopter crews who would depart to make arrests.

Then Wadirpolairud and his team departed using a BKO helicopter from the National Police Headquarters to Maspari Island in the waters of South Bangka.

"When the helicopter crossed the waters of Nangka Island, Sungai Selan, Central Bangka Regency, it was detected and visually monitored by a ship traveling at high speed. Then the pilot directed the helicopter to approach the ship and it turned out that the ship was indeed a ship suspected of carrying illegal cargo," said the police chief.

Furthermore, the personnel gave an appeal using loudspeakers so that the captain stopped the ship but the appeal was ignored.

Because he was ignored, finally the personnel who were in the helicopter gave warning shots towards the bow of the ship but the captain did not obey.

"Because they were not obeyed, the personnel directed the target of the fire that hit the ship's hull, but the ship continued to go fast," he said.

During the pursuit, Wadirpolairud and his team saw one of the crew of the fast boat throwing something into the sea.

After seeing this, the personnel returned to fire at the ship, but the captain was getting desperate and directed his ship to the coastal area in the waters of Sumatra and broke through a fairly dense mangrove forest located in Tanjung Jati, OKI Regency, South Sumatra.

"The ship stopped because it hit large logs in the forest, the captain and crew managed to escape into the mangrove forest. At that time, the personnel fired several shots at the captain but they escaped," he said.

In the pursuit, personnel managed to find evidence of a high-speed ship that was still in the mangrove forest.

"Because the location is muddy, it is very difficult to evacuate the ship, because we have to wait for high tides to remove evidence from the mangrove forest," he said.