Indonesian Police Bust Illegal Covid-19 Vaccine Ring in North Sumatra Province

KOMPAS.com – Police in the Indonesian province of North Sumatra has arrested four individuals in the provincial capital Medan for running an illegal Covid-19 vaccine ring that has been selling the vaccinations to the public.

North Sumatra Regional Police chief Inspector General Panca Putra Simanjuntak identified the suspects as three civil servants, whom he identified as IW, KS, and ASN, and SW, a property agent.

“IW is a doctor at the Tanjung Gusta Penitentiary, while KS is a doctor at the North Sumatra Health Service. ASN works alongside KS in the same office,” he said in a press conference Friday.

“The [North Sumatra Provincial Administration] entrusted IW vaccines with doses of the Sinovac vaccine to vaccinate the Tanjung Gusta [prison staff] and inmates, as he was the prison doctor. Instead, he used the vaccines on the public for a price.”

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Panca added that IW charged the public Rp. 250 thousand [$17.40] for a shot. “The group vaccinated 1,085 people during 15 illegal group vaccination drives, 14 of which were held in Medan and one in Jakarta since April 2021." he noted.

"IW carried out eight group vaccinations, while KS held seven,” he noted.

Based on popular demand

Panca said that SW procured and organized the recipients for the illegal vaccine drive, a fact that she admitted during the press conference. “I was involved in the vaccine ring to facilitate a number of friends who wanted to be vaccinated,” SW said.

“My friends paid up the [Rp. 250 thousand] fee to me in cash, which I then disbursed to the doctors. Both of them compensated me for overtime with cash and other means, though I did not ask for it.”

KOMPAS.COM/DEWANTORO Boxes of the Sinovac Covid-19 vaccine that was used as evidence against an illegal vaccination ring