Abdul Khalik, Jakarta – Despite the police crackdown on what they term "porn", prospective buyers of erotica, be it cheesecake magazines and tabloids or hard-core VCDs, can still find what they are looking for if they know where to look.

A few knowing questions to sellers in bustling Senen market in Central Jakarta will yield a selection of raunchy magazines or tabloids. For Senen, long known as the place for hunters of old books and magazines, also is notorious for its stash of imported porn publications. Sellers keep them safely out of view, often tucked among piles of secondhand books and magazines.

A magazine vendor said sales of erotic publications dropped drastically in recent days, after police launched their crackdown beginning Friday. He suspected police had deployed plainclothes personnel to monitor the area, with buyers now afraid of being caught.

"We can't sell tabloids and magazines openly although we have a lot of stock. We hope it's only a temporary condition," he told The Jakarta Post. Vendors also said they had to be on guard when sizing up people who asked about erotic magazines.

As of Monday, Jakarta Police had seized 105 books, 37,000 tabloids and 350 magazines categorized as soft-core porn from newsstands in five municipalities in Jakarta, as well as neighboring Depok and Tangerang municipalities.

Confiscated items were put on display at a press conference at city police headquarters on Monday, along with 1,874 pirated DVDs and 500 VCDs with pornographic content.

Fifteen alleged manufacturers of pirated VCDs and DVDs were arrested and 105 people allegedly engaged in distribution and trade of adult materials were questioned.

Jakarta Police Chief Insp. Gen. Firman Gani vowed Monday to continue the crackdown against adult materials throughout the city.

On Tuesday in West Jakarta's Glodok, pornographic VCDs and DVDs were still available at a corner kiosk on a floor of the nine-story electronic trade center, although their sale was not as open as before the raids. Traders have long displayed x-rated VCDs and DVDs outside the center, calling out to passersby to take a look.

Young and old gathered around the disc sellers Tuesday, scanning the titles and asking for some to be played on a 12-inch TV.

Seller "Martin" said he had been warned of the raids. "Somebody will come and tell us if the police are on the way. We simply hide our stuff and stop selling temporarily. Friends in the police told us in advance not to sell porn materials for several days because there would be many raids. But we can't wait as we need to earn money to live."

The threat of having their materials confiscated proved an effective deterrent for many magazine vendors, who pulled locally produced cheesecake magazines Lipstick, Exotica and Expose from their shelves. Even local men's magazine Matra and the Indonesian version of For Him Magazine disappeared from many newsstands. "We can't sell such magazines anymore because we're afraid of getting busted. In recent days, police have often conducted raids against us," Mona, an owner of small newspaper shop in Slipi, West Jakarta, told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.

She believed it would be back to business as usual once the initial enthusiasm in the campaign against smut, like previous ones against thugs and drugs, dies down. "It will soon be over and we can start selling all kinds magazines and tabloids as usual," she said confidently.