Cockatoo – omkicau.com
Surabaya, Jubi – Police uncovered an attempt to smuggle rare parrots from Papua province at Tanjung Perak Seaport, Surabaya.
“We received information about the smuggling of protected species. We detained someone carrying parrots in Tidar Passenger Ship while it docked at the seaport,” Tanjung Perak Police Crime and Investigation Chief Adjunct Police Commissioner Aldy Sulaiman told reporters on Monday (4/5/2015).
He said police seized 22 cockatoos and a green parrot and brought the suspected smuggler to the police station for further questioning.
The police suspected a disembarked passenger, then searched him and found a yellow-crested cockatoo and a green parrot.
“We found these two birds in a box belonging to a passenger of Tidar Passenger Ship that shipping from Papua to Jakarta through Makassar and Surabaya,” he said accompanied with Tanjung Perak Seaport Police Spokesperson.
Feeling suspicious, the police entered the ship for searching several rooms and found twenty-one yellow-crested cockatoos hidden in two places at third deck. “These protected birds were put in the bottles of mineral water. In total we have secured twenty-two cockatoos and a green parrot,” he said.
A passenger identified with initial MY (37), Mojokerto resident, is currently being interrogated by the police and must undergo further investigation process. To the police, he admitted only carrying two birds whose he got from his fried in Makassar and didn’t know about the other twenty-one birds. “But we are still developing this case and now trying to figure out whether he has connection with dozens of birds founded at the ship’s third deck,” he said.
Later, the police make coordination with the Natural Resource Conservation Center of East Java related to this finding. If he was found guilty, he would be subjected to violate the article 21 and article 40 of Indonesian Law No. 5/1990 and Indonesian Regulation No.8/1999 about the Natural Resources Protection and Plants and Wildlife Reserved. He could be sentenced for five years in prison. (*/rom)
