Indonesian authorities have arrested an Australian who allegedly smuggled cocaine on Bali’s tourist island.
Lamar Aaron Archie, 43, from Cairns, North Queensland, was arrested last Thursday after police raided a rental property near Kuta Beach, a popular tourist spot, seized 206 kilograms of cocaine along with digital scales and a mobile phone.
Adityajaya said the arrest followed an investigation conducted by the Bali police anti-drug surveillance team, which reported that Bali police had received two suspicious packages sent by the UK by mail.
“He is suspected of importing or distributing Class 1 drugs,” Adityajaya said at a press conference in Denpasar, the provincial capital.
“He is threatened with death or life sentence.”
Adityajaya said a preliminary investigation showed that Australians had won two packages at Denpasar’s post office on May 21 to motorcycle taxi drivers through Grab Online service.
The driver was told to hand over the two packages from another online service to the motorcycle taxi driver. He was ordered to deliver them to rental housing in Ahchee, Adityajaya said.
Adityajaya said the suspect told authorities during police questioning that he had been asked to take the package and distribute it in Bali by someone he called “boss.”
Dealer or user?
He was promised rupiah (2,660 euros) for 50 million people to handle cocaine.
Police presented the accused at a press conference on Monday, where they wore orange detainee jumpsuits and masks.
The man did not make a statement.
One of his lawyers, Edward Pankahira, said his team will accompany his clients during police questioning “to see the progress of the investigation.”
“He’s not a cocaine owner, he’s just a user,” Pankahira said.
Southeast Asian countries have very strict drug laws, and convicted smugglers are sometimes executed for firing squads.
The United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime says Indonesia is a major drug-dense hub despite having some of the world’s strictest drug laws.
On Tuesday, Denpasar District Court handed British citizen Thomas Parker a 10-month prison sentence on Tuesday to British citizen Thomas Parker, who was arrested in January, after collecting drug-containing packages from a motorcycle taxi driver.
Indonesian authorities arrested an Argentinean woman and a British man in March after allegedly smuggling 324 grams of cocaine in Bali.
Approximately 530 people, including 96 foreigners, are on death row in Indonesia, with data from the Ministry of Immigration and Corrections showing them primarily due to drug-related crimes.
