Surabaya Police Arrest 34 Chinese for Immigration Law Violations

Surabaya, East Java - Surabaya city police have arrested 34 Chinese nationals staying in five different houses for allegedly violating the country's immigration law. "We are investigating them because they have violated Law Number 9 on immigration. Some of them do not have working visas while others have no passports," Surabaya city police chief Senior Commissioner Coki Manurung told newsmen at the city police headquarters here on Monday. Twelve of the arrested Chinese nationals were women. They have not been detained as they were still being interrogated. He said 27 of them had passports but seven others did not and two of them had fake passports. Coki said the police had found indications of crimes having been committed by them, namely fraud and running a gambling ring. "We cannot yet confirm these suspcions as we have problems communicating with them. None of them speak English or Indonesian. We are still developing the case," he said. He said crime indications were strong because the police had discovered hundred telephones, facsimile machines, computer hardwares, laptops and various documents written in Chinese. The police confiscated the evidence from three different luxury houses in the Prima Indah Selatan Sutorejo housing complext, Villa Westwood and Manyar Kertoarjo housing complex. "We have not yet conducted search in other houses namely in the Regency and Kertajaya Housing Complexes. In turn we will do it later," he said.