Beware Of Fake Sugar Circulating In Banyumas, The Case Has Been Handled By The Police

Head of Banyumas City Police, Police Grand Commissioner M Firman L Hakim showed mixed sugar. (Photo: Sumarwoto/Antara)

JAKARTA - Officers from the Criminal Investigation Unit (Satreskrim) of the Banyumas City Police (Polresta), Central Java, have uncovered a case of falsifying granulated sugar by mixing refined sugar and molasses in two different locations.

"The perpetrators caught yesterday, had wrong procedures in its utilization so that it is secured," said Banyumas Police Head M Firman L Hakim during a press conference at the Banyumas Police Headquarters, Purwokerto, Banyumas Regency, Thursday, April 22.

He said the refined sugar case is the first to be revealed by the National Police Headquarter, which was then handed over to the Banyumas Police.

The perpetrators who had now been named as suspects consisted of G (24), residents of Ajibarang, Banyumas, and W (40), residents of Cilongok, Banyumas, while the sugar that was secured as evidence was 35 tons.

"The two perpetrators have been named as suspects. We will continue to develop the case so that it does not affect the community because of refined sugar "It is very dangerous if it is directly consumed by the public," he said.

In this case, he said, refined sugar should not be consumed directly but must go through a process or industrial processing, while the two suspects did not have a production and processing permit.

by mixing 5 tons of refined sugar into 25 kilograms of molasses which are then packaged in sacks from a well-known brand of pure granulated sugar owned by a state-owned enterprise (BUMN) that opened a factory in Madiun.

"According to their admission, the sugar is sold to the West Java region," said the Head of City Police.

Meanwhile, Head of the Criminal Investigation Unit, Commissioner of Police Berry, said that the disclosure of the case of mixing refined sugar with molasses began with a raid on a warehouse in Ajibarang on Friday (16/4).

"That night, we continued to Cilongok," he said.

He said according to the confession of the suspect, the refined sugar was purchased at a price of Rp9,900 per kilogram and after processing, the results were sold to traders in the market at a price of Rp11,500/kg.

According to him, the mixing of refined sugar with molasses has been going on for about seven months with a production quota of more than 100 tons per month.

In connection with the case, he said the two suspects would be charged under Article 120 paragraph 1 of Law Number 3 of 2014 concerning Jo Industry. Article 53 paragraph 1 letter b as amended by Article 44 number 4 Law Number 11 of 2020 concerning Job Creation and/or Article 62 paragraph 1 Jo. Article 8, paragraph 1, letter a of Law Number 8 of 1999 regarding Consumer Protection, carries a maximum sentence of 5 years in prison.