REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, SURABAYA -- Surabaya police have nabbed and named three men suspects in producing and selling deadly alcoholic drink. Bootleg liquor has caused the death of three men in the East Java capital city last weekend.
"We moved fast. Upon receiving information about the three victims we looked for the sellers," Surabaya police chief Sr. Com. Rudi Setiawan told reporters here on Monday.
The three victims identified as Pramuji Arianto (49), Wahyudi (52) and Syamsul Hidayat (38) died not long after consuming illegally mixed alcoholic drink in their at Jalan Pacar Keling in Surabaya on Saturday night.
Rudi said police held three other people taking part in the drinking party for questioning as witnesses, adding, investigation of the three witness led to the arrest of the producers and seller of the illegal drink.
The three producers and sellers were immediately named suspects . They were identified as Kus (59),GT (47), and Soe (54) all citizens of Surabaya.
Kus and GT were the sellers and Soe was the producers of the illegal drink, Rudi said.
Police confiscated strong drink in 274 plastic bottles without label each measuring 600 milliliters.
"We also confiscated three plastic drums containing alcohol and blending tools from Soe," Rudi said.
Soe told his investigators that the plastic bottles were filled with alcohol of 95 percent degree mixed with distilled water.
Kus and GT bought the strong drink at Rp25,000 per bottle from Soe and doubled the selling price for the consumers.
The day before, another local men Dursalim (59) died after consuming alcoholic drink together with the three who died on Saturday night.
The incidents in Surabaya came only days after the country was shocked by the loss of 51 lives in West Java on a similar cause.
Police already arrested a number of people charged with producing and selling illegally processed alcoholic drink following the tragedy in a West Java town.
Police are still busy raiding shops selling alcoholic drinks mainly in big cities in Java hoping to catch other producers or suppliers of illegally blended alcoholic drinks.
Chairman of the Indonesia Association of Scientists and Law Practitioners Indonesia (Alpha) Azmi Syahputra blamed weak control by police for the rife trade of alcoholic drinks illegally blended.
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