Jakarta Police have detained and charged Leopard Wisnu Kumala, who is allegedly responsible for the blast at Alam Sutera Mall on the western outskirts of Jakarta on Wednesday. (Antara Photo/Akbar Nugroho Gumay)

Jakarta. Police have revealed the identity of one of the arrested suspects believed to be responsible for a bomb blast at the Alam Sutera Mall on the western outskirts of Jakarta on Wednesday.

Jakarta Police chief Insp. Gen. Tito Karnavian said the suspect was a 29-year-old man named Leopard Wisnu Kumala, a technician at a telecommunications services and installation company, who had by his own admission placed explosives at the same mall on at least three previous occasions.

Preliminary investigations also reveal that Leopard “is a lone wolf who is not connected to any terrorism group,” Tito said, referring to previous reports that the suspect may be an Islamic State sympathizer. Leopard's apparent motive for the mall blast was to extort money, Tito added.

Police earlier arrested two people in connection with the blast, but only Leopard has been charged.

A leopard who couldn't change his spots

On Wednesday, police say the blast was caused by a low-powered explosive, which was hidden inside a trash can near a cafeteria for mall workers on the ground floor of the mall. The bomb went off at around lunchtime, injuring a janitor. The incident mirrored an identical blast at a toilet at the very same mall on July 9, also injuring one person.

According to police, Leopard confessed to the earlier bombing, on July 9, as well as to planting explosives at the Alam Sutera Mall on two other occasions; but on both incidents – on Oct. 10 at the same toilet near the cafeteria, and on July 6 at the mall's supermarket – the explosives failed to detonate.

In the July 6 incident, CCTV footage showed a man placing an object believed to be the bomb on a supermarket shelf carrying bug spray – a strategy likely intended to amplify the explosive effect of the bomb, police said.

Police believe Leopard intended to commit other attacks after finding more explosives inside his home in Serang, Banten province, which the suspect shares with his wife and a 3-year-old child.

Extortion

Police say Leopard confessed to sending threatening e-mails to the Alam Sutera Mall management, each time prior to launching an attack.

Investigations also reveal that Leopard managed to extort an equivalent of Rp 320 million ($23,520), in the form of the digital currency bitcoin from the management.

Flying under the radar

Tito explained that suspects who operate in the way Leopard do are hard to catch, since they often work alone and stay under the radar. “They learn how to make bombs from the Internet as well as learn how to scout for targets and launch attacks on their own,” Tito said.

Leopard used the chemical triacetone triperoxide (TATP) to make his explosives; Tito said the chemical was difficult to detect through the X-ray machines typically found in some of the more upscale malls in the Greater Jakarta area.