Jakarta – The police raided an illegal cell phone manufacturer in a shop house in Penjaringan, North Jakarta, on Monday. The factory had been operating for two years and had employed underage workers.
The crackdown began after authorities grew suspicious of frequent loading and unloading at the location, North Jakarta Police chief Sr. Comr. Budhi Herdi Susianto said.
After the two weeks of staking out the shop, the police's criminal investigation unit decided to search it. "We found out there was actually a cell phone assembly operation with no relevant permission in its license," Budhi said as quoted by kompas.com.
The police have arrested a suspect identified only by the initials NG, the owner of the shop house who lived in Pontianak, West Kalimantan.
"The suspect imported spare parts from manufacturers in China and assembled them here. The products were then sold all around Indonesia," said Budhi, adding that the phones were sold online.
NG also sold imported, ready-to-use cell phones which allowed the shop to get a product damage warranty, while in fact, it only had a permit to sell cell phone accessories, he said.
With the imported parts, the shop was able to produce replicas of Chinese-brand cell phones. The police said NG profited between Rp 500,000 (US$35.6) and Rp 1,000,000 per phone.
During the raid on Monday, the police seized 18,000 illegal cell phones of 17 different types. According to the police, the illegal business had operated for about two years, earning a total profit of approximately Rp 12 billion.
"They made quite a lot from this cell phone business. If we look at it, cell phones with pretty high specifications were sold at a cheap price," Budhi said.
After breaking in, the police found out that NG employed 29 people to assemble the phones – including three minors – working six days a week.
"They work here from Monday to Saturday," he said. "It turned out that these workers were also originally from outside the capital." The employees were able to produce at least 200 mobile phones a day.
They were paid a monthly salary of Rp 800,000, far below the city's minimum wage, but with bonuses, they may have been able to earn double the base salary, Budhi said. He said the employees were witnesses in the case.
NG faces possible punishment under several laws, including the 2014 law on trade, Article 32 of the 1999 law on telecommunications, the 2003 law on labor and the 1999 law on consumer protection. (syk)