JAKARTA - In Indonesia, it is illegal to import second-hand clothes, for health and economic reasons. But this has not stopped syndicates from taking advantage of the country’s porous borders, weak enforcement and rogue customs officers to smuggle in these goods.

The authorities have detected illegal garment shipments along the eastern part of Sumatra island, through the so-called “mouse seaports”, or tiny illegal ports spread along the coastline facing the Malacca Straits, said Finance Minister Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa at a recent briefing with reporters in Jakarta.