Indonesian police investigate human trafficking ring
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Xinhua, December 23, 2011
A thorough investigation against the ring that organized the trip of illegal immigrants whose boat capsized in Indonesian waters on Saturday last week that killed at least 95 people on board the boat is underway at the moment, a senior Indonesian police officer said on Friday.
The investigation was aimed at tracing the operation of the ring and dismantling the organization that carried out the risky boat trip to Australia, Indonesian police headquarters spokesperson Saud Usman said.
Citing the accounts of the survivors, Saud said that each immigrant boarding the ill-fated boat paid 4,000 to 6,500 U.S. dollars to the ring that organized the trip to Australia.
He added that the members of the ring were people from their origin countries, transit country and destination country. It means that the ring also involves people from Indonesia and Australia.
"That was the illegal migrants' preliminary confession. We will dismantle them along with the root of their network," Saud said in the police headquarters here.
Saud said that four people have been arrested regarding the illegal migrant boat that capsized off the Trenggalek coast in East Java. He said that they were the boat owners and crews.
Earlier on Thursday Saud said that four Indonesian military members (TNI) had also been arrested regarding the boat capsizal in Trenggalek waters. They were now detained in a military police detachment in Tulungagung, East Java, for further investigation.
Besides that, police also arrested civil servants working in a local district military command (Koramil) related to the mishap.
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