Answering Gresik Residents' Anxiety, Police Arrest Seller Of Exorbitant Oxygen Cylinders

Disclosure of oxygen sales cases in Gresik/ Antara

JAKARTA - Police officers from Gresik Regency, East Java, arrested a gang of oxygen cylinder sellers selling above the normal price, thereby harming consumers in need.

Gresik Police Chief, AKBP Arief Fitrianto, said the gang initially sold 1 M3 oxygen cylinders online at a price of IDR 4.2 million, but when the transaction took place the price was increased to IDR 5.5 million.

Meanwhile, the average price of 1 M3 oxygen gas cylinders is usually sold at a price in the range of IDR 700 thousand to IDR 800 thousand.

"The group of suspects is suspected of Article 62 Paragraph (1) in conjunction with Article 10 Letter a of the RI Law No. 8 of 1999 concerning Consumer Protection with a maximum penalty of 5 years in prison," said Arief, to reporters in Gresik, as reported by Antara, Thursday, August 19. .

The arrest of the perpetrator began when members of the Gresik Police carried out an investigation related to the unrest of residents buying oxygen cylinders online which were quite expensive.

Then, find a seller of oxygen cylinders on one of the online sales pages called Vero. It is known that the owner of the Vero account is FD, a resident of Surabaya.

The officer disguised himself as a buyer and agreed to the number determined by the seller.

On Thursday 15 July 2021, a cash on delivery (COD) transaction was carried out at the ABR Housing Block A, Gresik, and two 1 M3 oxygen cylinders were delivered using an online taxi service and Rp11 million was transferred to the seller.

From online taxi information, the seller's address is known at Pondok Candra Indah Housing, Sidoarjo. Gresik Police Satreskrim officers conducted a search and arrested a couple, KN (27) and his wife, GC (27).

From the hands of the husband and wife, the officers confiscated two oxygen cylinders, each measuring 1 M3 and 6 M3. However, the couple was not the initial seller who made transactions with the officers, so the officers carried out an investigation and it was found that there was a chain transaction seeking mutual profit which ended in the hands of FD (19) a resident of Surabaya.

Officers confiscated a total of 4 oxygen cylinders with details, 3 tubes measuring 1M3 and 1 tube 6 M3 as well as cash totaling Rp2.1 million and an ATM card with a balance of Rp800 thousand as evidence from FD's hands.

"This arrest is a lesson to others that do transactions properly, don't dance on the suffering of the community during the COVID-19 pandemic," he said.