JAKARTA, Indonesia — Authorities have arrested an American basketball player from the Indonesian league on allegations of attempting to smuggle illegal drugs into the country, police stated on Thursday.
The Southeast Asian country has extremely strict drug laws, and convicted smugglers are sometimes executed by firing squad.
Jarred Dwayne Shaw, 34, hailing from Dallas, Texas, was apprehended on May 7, after officers conducted a raid at his apartment in Tangerang regency, near the capital, Jakarta. During the raid, they confiscated 132 pieces of cannabis candies, as per Ronald Sipayung, the Soekarno-Hatta Airport police chief.
The arrest was prompted by a tip from airport customs officials who reported that Shaw had received a suspicious package via air freight from Thailand, Sipayung explained. Although cannabis was decriminalized in Thailand in 2022, Indonesia’s strict anti-drug laws mean Shaw could face a life sentence or even the death penalty if convicted, Sipayung added.
A video circulating on social media purportedly showed Shaw, wearing a black T-shirt and shorts, resisting as he was being pushed away by police and shouting “Help … help!” when he was about to be arrested.
Shaw has played for several clubs in the Indonesian Basketball League since 2022, and signed a contract with Tangerang Hawk last year. He told police during interrogation that he wanted to share the cannabis candy with fellow basketball players, according to Sipayung.
He said the candy contained a total gross weight of 869 grams (30.6 ounces) of illegal cannabinoid inside a package.
“We are still running the investigation to uncover the international drugs network behind this case and to stop its distribution,” Sipayung said.
Shaw did not make any statement when he was presented by the authorities at a news conference Wednesday wearing a detainee orange T-shirt and a mask with his hands tied.
The Tangerang Hawks’ manager, Tikky Suwantikno, told reporters on Thursday that they regretted what had been done by Shaw and that the club had immediately fired him because he had breached his contract.
The Indonesian Basketball League banned Shaw from playing for life, said its chair, Budisatrio Djiwandono.
“We don’t tolerate players, administrators or anyone in the field involved in drugs. There is no room for drug users in the basketball world,” Djiwandono said.
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.
About 530 people are on death row in Indonesia, mostly for drug-related crimes, including 96 foreigners, according to data from the Ministry of Immigration and Corrections. Indonesia’s last executions, of an Indonesian and three foreigners, were carried out in July 2016.
