Police Arrest Perpetrators Of Forgery Of Vaccine Letters For Ship Passengers

Vaccine counterfeiters on Pelni/Antara Ships

JAKARTA - The Baubau City Resort Police, Southeast Sulawesi, has arrested the alleged perpetrator of making fake vaccine letters for passengers on the PT Pelni ship. This case was discovered by the COVID-19 Task Force (Satgas) of Sorong City, West Papua.

"So after the video went viral, we picked up the ball by contacting the Sorong Task Force. After receiving the information, we took steps to secure brother A," said Baubau Police Chief, AKBP Zainal Rio Chandra Tangkari, in Baubau, reported by Antara, Wednesday, July 28.

Previously, the Sorong COVID-19 Task Force secured the return of 26 passengers from Baubau for allegedly using fake vaccine letters and suspected fake antigen swabs.

The police chief said that currently his party has secured the perpetrators for questioning in the investigation as to the process of the incident, the series of events, and the unlawful act on the issue of forgery.

"Currently (the perpetrators) we have secured in Satreskrim for us to investigate, later we will expose the results of the investigation again," he asserted.

Rio Tangkari explained that the document (vaccine letter) made by the perpetrator was done at one of the typing rentals. The need for a vaccine letter and antigen as a condition for getting a ticket. Making the complete file to get the ticket, he said, was because previously there had been communication with 26 passengers or travellers of the ship's transportation mode.

According to the information obtained, the perpetrators work as port workers on a daily basis. Currently, only one-sided information is obtained from the alleged perpetrator.

"This is just one-sided information from A, then we will cross-check the information from the person concerned and then we will see whether the implementation is in accordance with the SOP or not," he said.