Suspects detained over trading

POLICE detained three suspects of illegal beche de mer trading in Western, acting South Fly police commander Snr Insp Ewai Segi says
“These suspects were arrested after police raided their houses and confiscated about 90kgs (worth over K27,000) of dried beche de mers when the harvesting season is still closed,” Snr Insp Segi said.
“These suspects have been detained at the police station with the confiscated beche de mers and will appear before the Daru District Court this week.”
He said they were tipped off about the storage of beche de mers.
“These suspects are senior town residents of Daru, who were encouraging locals to harvest beche de mers illegally,” Snr Insp Segi said.
“The locals avoid detection by police and the National Fisheries Authority (NFA) and harvest beche de mers secretly and sell them to these suspects.
“Upon receiving information about these suspects’ illegal activities, we raided their houses and confiscated these beche de mers which have been processed and ready to be sold to international buyers.”