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🇮🇩 Indonesia /Crime & Justice

Illegal Gold Hidden in Suitcase Walls

From Tempo · () Indonesian

Summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

News Named sources Under investigation
  • Indonesian police raided a luxury house in Jakarta’s Pantai Indah Kapuk neighborhood suspected of serving as an illegal gold refining and processing site linked to a China-based network.
  • The Chinese tenant had fled, but investigators found gold-testing equipment, digital scales, melting equipment and Rp50 million in cash.
  • Police said the raid followed intensified operations against an illegal gold-smuggling network.

A luxury two-story house in Jakarta’s Pantai Indah Kapuk neighborhood became the target of a police raid after investigators suspected it was being used to process illegally sourced gold.

More than a dozen officers from the Indonesian National Police’s Criminal Investigation Department searched the property on the night of Aug. 25. The operation was led by Brig. Gen. Mohammad Irhamni, director of the Special Crimes Directorate.

The house stood empty. Its tenant, a Chinese national identified as CGZ, had fled as police intensified operations against an illegal gold-smuggling network in recent weeks. “He may have gotten scared and fled,” Irhamni told Tempo the following day.

Investigators nevertheless found equipment that supported their suspicion about the property. The items included a device used to test gold purity, digital scales and machinery for melting gold. Officers also found Rp50 million, or about $2,800, in cash.

The raid came as illegal gold smuggling surged in Indonesia from early 2026, with production from illegal mines cited as a source of the increase. The evidence recovered from the house is now tied by police to a wider network connected to China.

He may have gotten scared and fled.

— Mohammad IrhamniThe Indonesian police general commented on the flight of the Chinese tenant from the raided house.
About this summary

Originally published by Tempo. Summarized and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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