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View all search resultsPolice bust Vietnam-bound lobster larvae ring in Batam
The bust came a week after Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Minister Sakti Wahyu Trenggono formally enacted a permanent ban on exporting the marine resource, backed by Presidential Regulation No. 69/2026, which established a national task force to dismantle smuggling networks.
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Smuggled lobster seeds (-/Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry)
T
he National Police have seized nearly 74,000 live lobster larvae in Batam, Riau Islands, destined for Vietnam, the latest enforcement action since a sweeping permanent export ban on the commodity took effect just one week earlier.
Officers from the Criminal Investigation Department's (Bareskrim) Directorate of Specific Crimes confiscated 73,877 live lobster larvae, known locally as benih bening lobster (BBL), on Monday, packaged in 13 styrofoam boxes. Two couriers, identified only by the initials RVJ and FAS, were arrested.
The bust came a week after Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Minister Sakti Wahyu Trenggono formally enacted a permanent ban on exporting the marine resource, backed by Presidential Regulation No. 69/2026, which established a national task force to dismantle smuggling networks.
"The task force is an effort to establish sound lobster management in Indonesia to build a competitive national lobster farming industry and improve the welfare of local fishers," Trenggono said at its Jakarta launch on Oct. 12.
Coordinating Food Minister Zulkifli Hasan put the wider stakes bluntly: "From our seas, we are losing enormous resource potential. Nearly Rp 200 trillion [US$11.1 billion] worth of marine resources is lost every year due to theft."
The suspects allegedly operated a multi-country transit route designed to avoid detection. Police said the larvae were collected in Pangandaran, West Java, transported overland to Tangerang, Banten, then moved by truck through Sumatra and Jambi to Batam, a common staging point for maritime smuggling, before being transshipped via Malaysia, Singapore and Cambodia to Vietnam.
"This network moved the BBL through a chain route, organized to avoid detection by officers," said special crimes chief Brig. Gen. Mohammad Irhamni at a press conference at Batam’s aquaculture center on Tuesday.
