Police have seized 115 containers with more than 2,264 cubic meters of Merbau logs with an estimated street value of Rp 80 billion (US$8.2 million) at Tanjung Perak Port in Surabaya, East Java, after discovering the timber did not have the required documentation.
Tanjung Perak Port police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Anom Wibowo said the containers had been sent by a company identified as PT RTA from Sorong, West Papua, to three different companies in Surabaya -- PT YC Gresik, PT KJP Sidoarjo and UD SG Surabaya.
“The three companies would later have shipped the wood to China,” Anom said as quoted by kompas.com on Saturday.
Anom added that the police suspected the existence of a syndicate involving government officials, because existing documents showed the cargo had been approved by the Sorong Mining and Industry office.
The case was still being investigated, he said.
The police, he said, were currently questioning a manager with PT Temas Surabaya, as one of the companies that received the logs.
Out of the 115 containers, 27 are being kept in a warehouse in Gresik and the rest in the Surabaya Container Terminal.