Lobster Seed Smuggling Operation Worth Approx. 2.6m USD Disrupted in Indonesia

March 13: The Indonesian government has prevented the smuggling of 245,102 lobster seeds. With the help of the Fleet One Quick Response Task Force of the Joint Fleet Command I, the smugglers were caught in Batam.

Marine Affairs and Fisheries Minister Susi Pudjiastuti said the estimated sale value of this catch is Rp37.2 billion (approx. $2.6mn USD).

“Once [the lobster seeds] reach Singapore, the value can go up to Rp60 billion,” Susi said during a press conference in Jakarta, Wednesday, March 13.

The task force team arrested the smuggler in Sugi Island, Batam, Riau Islands. The smuggler carried 44 cork cooler containing lobster seeds, packed into 1,320 plastic bags. They were planning to smuggle the goods on a speedboat.

Forty-one one out of the 44 cooler boxes contained 235,438 seeds of sand lobsters, and the other three cooler boxes contained 9,664 pearl lobster seeds.

“This is the biggest catch in our history. In the past, the most […seized was] about 120,000” Susi said.

Source: Tempo.co