Blotter: Jakarta police name illegal gambling suspects

Wednesday, Jakarta police announced the names of four suspects arrested during a raid on a South Jakarta café last month. Police allege that the four suspects were operating an illegal gambling ring out of the establishment.

The men named to the Jakarta Post were Sri Nauli Yuniar Pohan, Tony Thamrin, Kristianto and Mohamad Saleh. If found guilty, the four suspects could face up to five years in prison.

Police said they confiscated two computers, a flash drive and nearly $454 in cash from the café. They also said that they are still seeking a fifth man, whom they allege was in charge of the illegal operation.

“We are hunting down the suspected mastermind in the case, named Tjoeng Fo Seng, who manage to escape arrest,” police Adjunct Senior Commander Achmad Rivai said.

The news comes after Indonesia’s National Police announced a spike in illegal online gambling. According to National Police Chief Bambang Hendarso Danuri, “The number of cyber crimes in 2008 increased by 28.77 percent if compared with that of 2007 which stood at 73 cases.”

Danuri named sbobet in East Java and www.IBCBET.com in Jakarta as two illegal gambling websites and said that 20 suspects had been arrested in connection with online-gambling operations as of Dec. 31.

Jakarta police have not commented on whether the suspects named Wednesday were part of the arrests Danuri mentioned.

Part of the problem with curtailing the rise in illegal gambling, one police spokesman said, is that Indonesian investigators are understaffed and lack crucial training and equipment.

“We have no special room for surfing to trace the user names and passwords of the gamblers,” Jambi City Police Chief Eko Daniyanto told Online-Casinos.com. “The passwords change often. So we haven’t been able to track them.”