TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Surabaya City Police has raided a boar meat warehouse on Jl. Perjernihan and apprehended seven people to be questioned in relation to the discovery. "We condicted the raid because the boar meat we found was being marketed and passed off as beef," said the Head of Surabaya City Police, Sr. Comr. Yan Fitri to the press during the raid.

Six freezers containing boar meat that had already been packaged were confiscated, along with several packages of beef, added Yan, who said that the beef were found in several separate containers.

"The owners tricks customers who came to buy wholesale beef by giving them boar meat, which had already been labelled as beef," said Yan, before saying that the vendor does not sell beef nor mixes the beef with boar meat. "They only sell boar meat."

The raid occurred after Surabaya Police Chief instructed all personnel under his jurisdiction to actively inspect food products across markets in Surabaya throughout the month of Ramadan.

Previously, officials from Wonokromo District Police found during a raid in Jagir that boar meat are usually sold at a lower price compared to real beef - the disparity of which could reach up to Rp 10,000 per kilogram.

It is known that beef prices averages at around Rp 98,600 per kilogram, whereas boar meat sells for an average of Rp 85,000 per kilogram.

After the inital raid at Jagir, police conducted an investigation into the matter, and found that the cheap beef being sold were indeed, boar meat. Police's preliminary investigation found that the boar meat are usually shipped once a week from Jakarta.

At the same occassion, the Chief of Surabaya Police's Criminal Investigation Unit Sr. Adj. Comr. Takdir Mattanette said that the vendors usually start off by selling real beef, and before moving on to sell boar meat once their customers begin to trust in them.

Furthermore, the vendors usually justify the difference in appearance of the meat by saying that the meat is imported. "The key is to exercise caution because it is usually cheaper than the average beef price," Takdir said.

ANTARANEWS