Police Officer With The Rank Of Brigadier General, Apparently The Boss Of A Wild Gold Mine In Kaltara, Was Arrested At The Airport While Fleeing

The North Kalimantan Regional Police (Polda Kaltara) secures evidence in the illegal gold mining case (Via ANTARA)

KALTARA - The Kaltara Regional Police have secured evidence in the illegal gold mining case owned by a member of the National Police with the initials HSB located in Sekatak Buji Village, Sekatak District, Bulungan Regency.

"The Kaltara Police on Thursday, April 21 received information regarding an alleged illegal gold mine located in Sekatak Buji Village, Sekatak District, Bulungan Regency," said Head of Public Relations of the Kaltara Polda Kombes Budi Rachmat in a written statement received in Tarakan, Antara, Thursday, 5 May.

Armed with this information, the Kaltara Regional Police Chief Inspector General Daniel Adityajaya formed a joint special team from the Criminal Investigation Directorate, Bulungan Police, and Tarakan Police to carry out investigations and investigations. "From the investigation, it was found that there were illegal gold mining activities at that location," said Budi.

Furthermore, on Saturday, April 30, a further investigation was carried out in coordination with PT. BTM. That the location of the mining activity is in PT BTM, Sekatak Buji Village, Sekatak District, Bulungan Regency, not under SPK or PT BTM.

He explained that the type of work carried out was mining and processing soil materials using cyanide-type chemicals to obtain gold, namely processing by the immersion method.

The Kaltara Regional Police on April 30, 2022 have arrested five people, namely MI as the coordinator, H as the foreman, MU as the body keeper, B and I are the drivers of a rented truck. The evidence seized were three excavators, two trucks, four cyanide drums, and five immersion carbons.

The results of the examination of the witnesses who were secured, explained that the owner of the illegal gold mine was HSB, who was a member of the Police with the rank of Brigadier General, and M as the coordinator.

From the results of the examination, it was concluded that the act violated Article 158 in conjunction with Article 160 of Law Number 3 of 2020 concerning Amendments to Law Number 4 of 2009 concerning Minerals and Coal.

Whereas based on the results of the investigation and information from the mineral and coal expert, the parties who can be named as suspects are HSB, M, MI, H and MU.

"Based on accurate information and intelligence data, the suspects HSB and MU have planned to eliminate evidence and make real efforts to obscure the facts and run away," Budi also said.

The suspect HSB was arrested at Juwata International Airport, Tarakan on Wednesday, May 4 at around 12.15 WITA.