Lobster Seeds Worth IDR 33.8 Billion Wanted To Be Smuggled From Palembang, Luck Can Be Thwarted

PALEMBANG - A joint Customs and Excise team and the police foiled an attempt to smuggle 225,664 lobster seeds worth IDR 33.8 billion in Palembang City, South Sumatra. Four suspected smugglers were arrested and secured by officers.

Head of the Regional Office of the Director-General of Customs and Excise for Eastern Sumatra, Dwijo Muryono, Friday, said the arrests were made by the Head Office Customs P2 Team, South Sumatra Police Task Force Team, Sumbagtim Customs P2 Team, and Palembang KPPBC on Thursday, June 17.

"Lobster seeds that were secured came from Krui Lampung, the plan is to export them to Malaysia", he said as reported by Antara.

He explained that initially, the joint team carried out a patrol to anticipate the illegal smuggling of lobster seeds and cigarettes on Jalan Lintas Palembang, at around 22.00 WIB the team suspected that two minibusses were suspected of transporting fry.

Then the team gave chase and managed to intercept the two cars on Mayjen Singadikane Keramasan Street, Palembang City, then the team searched.

The result was found 27 white boxes containing 1,088 bags of fry without official documents with a total of 225,664 lobster seeds. "We have secured the lobster seeds and we have also secured the four people in the car, each SS, M, R, and SG", he said.

Dwijo added that the perpetrators are being investigated, but it is suspected that the four of them violated the Republic of Indonesia Law Number 31 of 2004 as well as Law Number 45 of 2009 concerning Fisheries.

This failure was the third attempt in June 2021, previously on Monday, June 7, the joint customs team thwarted 55,005 fries, and Saturday, June 12 as many as 66,937 with a total value of IDR 18.4 billion. "That's why we continue to tighten coordination in the routes that have the potential to be used by smugglers", he said regarding the smuggling of lobster seeds.