A notorious Indonesian people smuggler, who allegedly helped organise the failed asylum seeker journey to New Zealand at the heart of last year's cash for boat turn-back scandal, has been arrested in Jakarta.
The captain and five crew members, who said Australian officials paid them $US32,000 to return 65 asylum seekers to Indonesia, are already serving at least five years behind bars for people smuggling.
Indonesian police said Abraham Louhenapessy, or Captain Bram as he is also known, had been arrested at 2am Friday local time at his house in West Jakarta and would be taken to the "crime scene" on Rote island on Saturday.
It is alleged that Louhenapessy, 56, who has a long history of people smuggling to Australia, bought the boat and helped organise the trip of mostly Sri Lankan asylum seekers to New Zealand, which left Tegal in Java on April 30 last year.
The asylum seeker boat was intercepted by Australian border control authorities, who the crew said paid them about $US5000 each on the condition they turn back to Indonesia and "never ever do this work ever again".
The asylum seekers were returned in two boats, one of which hit a reef near Landu island, in West Rote, where they were rescued by villagers.
The explosive cash payment claims were never denied by former prime minister Tony Abbott.
He said the Australian government stopped the boats "by hook or by crook" and border protection agencies were "incredibly creative in coming up with a whole range of strategies to break this evil trade".
The cash for turn-back scandal was the subject of a Senate inquiry and prompted Amnesty International to call for a Royal Commission.
Sri Lankan people smuggler Kugan, who is also known as Vishvanathan Thineshkumar, was also jailed in March this year for helping to organise the failed trip to New Zealand.
Police said in a statement that Louhenapessy was an "old player" in smuggling people to Australia, with most journeys starting from beaches along the West Java coastline.
In 2010 Louhenapessy escaped a jail term for organising an attempt to bring more than 250 Sri Lankans on an overcrowded boat to Christmas Island in 2009.
The ship was intercepted by the Indonesian navy after former prime minister Kevin Rudd called former Indonesian president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, but many of the Tamils refused for months to disembark on a Western Javan dock.
However because Indonesia did not have anti people smuggling laws at the time, Louhenapessy was merely fined for breaching sailing laws.
In 2010, Fairfax Media reported that Louhenapessy, who first came to the attention of authorities in 1999, was thought to have arranged the passage of more than 1500 people.
His arrest for various immigration offences in 2007, described as the "most significant breakthrough in years" by the Howard government, led to just 20 months in prison, where he was believed to have continued to run a people smuggling network.
In 2011 Indonesia passed laws criminalising people smuggling, with penalties of between five and 15 years in prison for those convicted.
