DENPASAR – Authorities in Indonesia have apprehended an Australian on suspicion of smuggling cocaine on Bali, a tourist-frequented island, a crime which could result in the death penalty, officials stated on Monday.
The Southeast Asian country has extremely strict drug laws, and convicted smugglers are sometimes executed by firing squad.
The individual, aged 43 and a native of Sydney, was detained on May 22, following a police search of his rented residence near the tourist-favored Kuta beach. The authorities confiscated 1.7 kilograms (3.7 pounds) of cocaine divided into 206 small plastic bags, in addition to a digital scale and a mobile phone, reported Bali Police Chief Daniel Adityajaya.
This arrest was preceded by a probe from Bali Police’s anti-drug surveillance units, who had noted that the man had taken delivery of two dubious parcels shipped from England, according to Adityajaya.
“He is suspected of importing or distributing class 1 narcotics,” Adityaja told a news conference in the provincial capital, Denpasar. “He is threatened with the death penalty or life imprisonment.”
Adityajaya said a preliminary investigation showed that the Australian had ordered a motorcycle taxi driver through the Grab online service on May 21, to pick up two packages at a post office in Denpasar.
The driver was told to hand the two packages to a motorcycle taxi driver from another online service, who was ordered to deliver them to the Australian’s rented house, Adityajaya said.
Police on Monday presented the accused at the news conference. He was wearing an orange detainee jumpsuit and a buff mask, with his hands handcuffed. The man did not make a statement.
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime says Indonesia is a major drug-smuggling hub despite having some of the strictest drug laws in the world, in part because international drug syndicates target its young population.
Denpasar District Court on Tuesday is scheduled to read out a verdict against Thomas Parker, a British national who was arrested on Jan. 21, after he allegedly collected a package containing drugs from a motorcycle taxi driver.
Indonesian authorities arrested an Argentinian woman and a British man in March for allegedly smuggling 324 grams (0.7 pounds) of cocaine on the tourist island of Bali.
About 530 people, including 96 foreigners, are on death row in Indonesia, mostly for drug-related crimes, the Ministry of Immigration and Corrections’ data showed. Indonesia’s last executions, of an Indonesian and three foreigners, were carried out in July 2016.
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Associated Press writer Niniek Karmini in Jakarta, Indonesia, contributed to this report.
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