A coordinated team from the East Jakarta Police and Halim Perdanakusuma Airport security personnel has foiled an attempt to smuggle lobster larvae from Batam, Riau Islands, which were hidden inside a suitcase.

“We found 13,600 lobster larvae packed in 68 plastic bags hidden inside an orange suitcase,” East Jakarta Police Sr. Comr. Andry Wibowo said as quoted by kompas.com on Monday (July 31).

He went on to explain that the discovery occurred when a security officer noticed the case was wet.

“The suitcase was examined by X-ray and we found the lobster larvae,” Andry said.

“On the basis of our investigation, the suitcase belongs to a resident of Batam, identified [only] as A. Members of our team have departed to Batam to pick up A for questioning,” Andry said.

A similar case was uncovered on June, when the National Police’s Special Crimes Directorate foiled an attempt to illegally export lobster eggs worth billions of rupiah to Singapore via Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Cengkareng, Banten, which could have inflicted state losses of Rp 31.3 billion (US$ 2.4 million).

source: thejakartapost.com