Seputarkarawang.com - Karawang, The Karawang Resort Police (Polres) succeeded in uncovering the illegal practice of misuse of subsidized Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) in the Graha III Housing area, Bengle Village, Majalaya District. This raid operation began with residents' concerns regarding the scarcity of melon gas in the area. Officers arrested a man with the initials RRH (32) who was caught in the act of transferring the contents of a melon tube to a non-subsidized tube using a homemade modification tool which had a high risk of triggering an explosion.The suspect's modus operandi was neat but dangerous, namely by injecting the contents of a 3 kilogram gas cylinder into a 12 kg and 5.5 kg capacity cylinder using an iron pipe and the help of ice cubes. The ice cubes are used to manipulate gas pressure so that the process of transferring contents runs faster. To deceive consumers and the public, RRH installed a fake seal purchased online, so that the adulterated product looked like a genuine tube issued by an official distributor.
Ironically, the perpetrator admitted that he had never weighed the weight according to operational standards when filling the non-subsidized cylinder. This not only harms the public as consumers in terms of gas volume, but also creates a high safety risk because the equipment used does not meet oil and gas safety standards. During the eight months of operation, this illegal activity is estimated to have caused state losses of Rp. 164 million rupiah from the accumulation of dozens of times of mixing.Now, the perpetrator and evidence in the form of dozens of tubes of various sizes, iron pipe syringes, and distribution motorbikes have been secured at the Karawang Police Headquarters. The RRH suspect is threatened with being caught in Article 55 of Law Number 22 of 2001 concerning Oil and Natural Gas which has been amended into Law Number 6 of 2023 concerning Job Creation. For his actions that have caused misery to ordinary people, the perpetrator faces a maximum prison sentence of six years and a maximum fine of IDR 60 billion.
