Jakarta, Indonesia, February 22—-Police from the province of Papua have captured three suspects along with a barge full of smuggled timber in the Naramasa waters near Manokwari, according to the Jakarta Post.
The Papuan police intercepted the boat towing a barge that carried 639 logs of Merbau wood, a total volume of about 2,123 cubic meters.
The barge, according to police spokesman, Sr. Comr. Zainuri Lubis, was on its way to Gresik, near the East Java capital of Surabaya, to meet the buyers.
Merbau timber is one of the most valuable species in Southeast Asia. It is sold for around $270 a cubic meter in China, where it is used primarily for flooring.
Lubis said he had no evidence the suspects were connected with the huge smuggling racket recently exposed by environmental investigators. Evidence by two non-governmental organizations -- the British-based Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) and the Indonesian environmental group Telapak -- say Malaysian businessmen along with Chinese and Hong Kong companies cooperate with the Indonesian Military and government officials to regularly ship 300,000 cubic meters of Merbau timber a month to China.
"We're still investigating whether Tan is related to the (activist-exposed) smuggling ring. Most of the suspects in many recent cases have been Malaysian citizens," Lubis said.
Lubis said he was sure police or the military were not involved in this case.
"We don't know whether the police and the military are involved in other cases, but they are certainly not in this case. We have to look at one case at a time to find out," Lubis said.
