Manokwari Police Arrest One Family Of Firearms Builders

The Manokwari City Police held a press conference to arrest three suspects as well as sellers of homemade firearms in Manokwari. (ANTARA/Fransiskus Salu Weking)

MANOKWARI - Manokwari City Police (Polresta), West Papua, arrested three suspects who were armed with illegal firearms with the initials PE, TK, and JHE with evidence of five homemade weapons.

Head of the Manokwari Police Operations Section, Kompol Wisnu Prasetyo, said that the suspects for kindergarten and JHE were arrested first on September 3, 2024 at 17.00 WIT.

After that, the Satreskrim Team then obtained information that the main perpetrators of the firearms assembly were suspects PE, the biological parents of the suspects TK and JHE.

"The suspects TK and JHE were caught trying to make a sale and purchase of homemade firearms made by the suspect PE," said Wisnu.

Furthermore, he said, the police immediately moved to the location of the homemade firearms located in Levi Village, North Manokwari District, Manokwari Regency.

The police also found dozens of evidences of equipment used in the manufacture of firearms, such as one welding machine, one electric hood engine, one electric drilling machine, saw, and others.

"During the raid at the TKP, the PE suspect had fled through the back door carrying a sack suspected of containing homemade weapons," said Wisnu.

The Polresta Satreskrim team then increased the intensity of the search, and finally arrested the PE suspect on September 13, 2024 in the Reremi area, West Manokwari District.

The suspect PE admitted that there were two long-barreled homemade weapons resembling AK47 which were stored in sacks and hidden around the location of the raid.

"We have also confiscated three short-barreled homemade firearms resembling a gun, so a total of five homemade firearms were confiscated," said Wisnu.

According to him, the manufacture of homemade firearms has been going on since 2019 with an workshop mode, and the production of weapons is sold to people in several areas.

The selling price of short-barreled firearms ranges from Rp. 3.5 million to Rp. 5 million, while long-barreled firearms are priced at Rp. 30 million to Rp. 50 million.

"The homemade weapons they produce are sold to the people in Manokwari, Warmare, and Ransiki (South Manokwari Regency)," he said.

Head of Criminal Investigation Unit of the Manokwari Police, AKP Raja Putra Napitupulu, said that the suspect's actions violated Article 1 paragraph (1) of the Emergency Law Number 12 of 1951 with a sentence of 15 years in prison.