Having A Lot Of Money To Be The Boss Of An Illegal Gold Mine, Musi Rawas North Sumatra Police Hunt A Man

North Musirawas Police raided the location of an illegal gold mine some time ago (ANTARA)

SOUTH SUMATRA - North Musi Rawas district police, South Sumatra are hunting for a person suspected of being a financier in illegal gold mining activities in Muara Tiku Village, Karang Jaya District.

Police Chief AKBP Eko Sumaryanto said the suspected financier had the initials Y. The identity of the person concerned was revealed after the criminal investigation unit personnel arrested six suspected illegal miners on Monday, December 6 last morning.

"For the past two days, we have been looking for Y, who is suspected of being a financier or their boss. We are still developing", said Eko at Rupit, Antara, Thursday, December 9.

The six suspects were NS (34) residents of Dharmasraya Raya, West Sumatra, TS (39) residents of Pati, Central Java, NA (21) residents of Kedung Rajo Belitang, East OKU.

Then MI (28) a resident of East OKU Rawa Bening, EL (23) a resident of East OKU and A (36) a resident of Karang Jaya Musi Rawas Utara.

The Kasatreskrim of the Musi Rawas Utara Police, AKP Tony Saputra, added that the suspects were arrested after his personnel conducted a silent search along the waters of Muara Tiku Village, Karang Jaya District, which is currently rife with illegal gold mining activities.

From the suspect's hands, the police confiscated evidence in the form of an electric starter, a gold tray, a half-inch shooting tube, an injection of soil, seven units of gadgets, a filter box, and seven sheets of filter carpet.

The suspects have their respective roles. Suspects NS and TS are the operators of the underground water pipe. Then MI, EL, and NA act as operators of stone removal that are not filtered or sucked in by pipes. "Meanwhile, A is a gold miner", he said.

When interrogated by the police, the suspect TS said that he had only been carrying out this illegal mining activity for the past two weeks. Although uncertain, but per week can get 15 grams of gold.

He explained that the miners apply a profit-sharing system for each gold obtained by dividing 57 percent for investors and 42 for mining workers. "For example, 15 grams of gold we can clean around IDR 800 thousand", he said.

The suspects are suspected of violating Article 34 and Article 158 of Law (UU) number 3 of 2020 concerning amendments to Law number 04 of 2009 concerning mineral and coal mining with a maximum imprisonment of five years and a maximum fine of Rp. 100 billion.