•    HOME   
•    NEWS   
•    BUSINESS   
•    INTERNATIONAL   
•    TECH   
•    SPORTS   
•    LIFE & TIMES   
•    OPINION   
•    MY JAKARTA   
•    BLOGS   

Denpasar. Police thwarted a recent attempt to smuggle green turtles from Java to Bali, where the protected turtles were to be distributed to restaurants on the island, an officer said on Monday.

Sr. Comr. Istiyono, the chief of police in Buleleng district, said two of the suspects who were arrested were members of the Armed Forces.

Istiyono said police were manning a roadside checkpoint near the Gilimanuk ferry port early on Sunday when they became suspicious of a truck that had stopped 50 meters before the checkpoint. A subsequent search found 42 turtles hidden in the truck.

Police arrested Made Winata, the truck’s driver, and Kadek Suharjo, a soldier escorting the shipment. The suspects told police interrogators that the turtles had been sent from Java via a small fishing port in Sumberkima village in Buleleng district.

The smugglers told officers that they planned to take the turtles to Denpasar, where they were to be handed over to a man identified as Made Muda.

Police also arrested an Armed Forces officer, Lt. Wahyudi, who is suspected of assigning Suharjo to escort the truck. “The three have been charged under the 1990 Law on Natural Resources and Ecosystem Conservation, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison and Rp 100 million [$10,000] in fines,” Istiyono said.

Gede Wenten, the chief of the Buleleng Natural Resources Conservation Agency, said the smuggled turtles were more than 30 years old.

“Their selling price would have been very high,” he said. “A small turtle would fetch about Rp 4 million, the older ones even more.”

Wenten said his agency’s immediate priority was to find a suitable habitat for the turtles, since the species cannot survive long on land. “Two turtles have already died,” he added.

Turtles are a prized delicacy in Bali and parts of the reptile are sometimes used as sacrifices in Hindu ceremonies.

Separately, Udayana University researcher Ida Bagus Windia Adnyana said there had been recent indications that turtle trafficking into Bali was on the rise.

In January, police broke up two attempts to smuggle turtles into Bali, including the capture of a boat with a cargo of six green turtles off the coast of Tanjung Benoa.

In February, police seized another boat loaded with 29 turtles in the strait between Dompu and Sumbawa islands in West Nusa Tenggara. The smugglers told the police the turtles were to be sold in Bali.

“This is only the tip of the iceberg. The number [of smugglers] that aren’t caught is estimated to be much higher,” Windia said.

He added that recent smuggling activities were a cause for concern, especially since the turtle trade had been considered wiped out after major busts between 2004 and 2006.

“This increase in smuggling is related to poor law enforcement,” he said. “And the smugglers haven’t learned their lesson.”