Jakarta (Antara Babel) - The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) has nabbed 18 suspects including two police officers and an army man at the Soekarno Hatta Airport, the KPK chairman Abraham Samad said at the airport on Saturday.
"We just nabbed 14 men including an army man and two policemen. The rest are hoodlums or scalpers," KPK chairman Abraham Samad said at the airport.
When the KPK leader was still giving his statement at the office of the airport operator, PT Angkasa Pura II, four other suspects were arrested bringing the number to 18 suspects.
KPK launched an impromptu inspection in cooperation with police, state owned airport operator PT Angkasa Pura II and other related agencies.
For many years in the past no TKI had been victims of organized extortion at the airport, Samad said.
Accompanying Samad leading the operation at the airport were his deputies including Bambang Widjojanto, Zulkarnain and Adnan Pandu Praja, and police chief of detective agency Commissioner Geneneral Suhardi Alius and officials of PT Angkasa Pura II and other related agencies.
Suhardi said the suspects would be grilled thoroughly as they are believed to be not alone in their illegal operations.
"They are not alone. There are indications that they are members of an organized crime," he said.
He said the 18 suspects had been caught forcing TKI to exchange their foreign currencies into rupiah at a much lower rate than the market value.
"We are set to clean the airport from the illegal practice to make the airport safe especially for TKI," he said.
Mas Achmad Santosa from the Presidential Working Unit of Development Supervision and Control (UKP4) said his office is charged with making Soekarno Hatta a world class international airport.
"For that purpose, UKP4 will work in synergy with Angkasa Pura II and other related agencies," Achmad said.
Angkasa Pura II president Tri S Sunoko said the company knew all along that extortion had been rampant in the airport.
"It is not easy for us to deal with the airport criminals. We are no law enforcers. Therefore, we are grateful with the formidable support from KPK and police.
"Hopefully this would be a good start to eliminate extortion and other such crimes to create security and convenience in the airport." Tri said.
It was strange that the National Body for TKI Employment and Protection (BNP2TKI), which is the authority responsible for the protection of TKI including in airport, failed to take part in the surprise inspection.
"Even without BNP2TKI we will dig deeper to root out and break the Mafia syndicate. We will drag anyone involved in the criminal ring. In time we will also investigate the BNP2TKI," Samad said.
KPK has since 2006 shown its interest in studying the system of TKI employment. The agency has found weaknesses at Terminal III of the airport (special terminal for TKI until 2007) potential for committing corruption such as by cheating TKI into exchanging their foreign currencies below the market rate.
There are many other crimes besetting TKI including extraordinary high transport fare TKI are forced to pay from the airport to their respective destinations using buses provided by the Manpower and Transmigration Ministry, Samad said.
Data at BNP2TKI showed there were 539,169 TKI arrivals at the airport in 2010, down to 494,266 in 2011 to 393,720 in 2012 and to 260,093 in 2013.
Further surprise inspection would be coordinated by UKP4 together with Angkasa Pura II.
KPK involved itself in the operation to exercise its function as a "trigger mechanism" to improve public services at the airport including service for TKI with emphasis on transparency and accountability.
