Bali Police hand over wanted suspect

Bali Police hand over wanted suspect

DENPASAR, Bali (JP): Bali Police have handed over a suspected
American drug criminal, who has resided in Bali for five years,
to U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) officers here on
Tuesday.

Bali Police narcotics unit chief Maj. Wayan Sewena escorted
Michael David Belcher, 37, to a Continental Micronesia aircraft
at Ngurah Rai International Airport where drug enforcement agents
Larry Sprock, Michael Flenagan and Andy Jauch were waiting.

Suweno said the handover was in accordance with international
procedure.

Belcher was wanted by the DEA since March 1998 for his alleged
involvement in smuggling nine tons of marijuana from Thailand to
the U.S. last year.

The mechanic gave himself up to Bali Police after a seven-hour
negotiation on Oct. 6.

Bali Police deputy chief of detectives Lt. Col. IGK Kesuma
said on Tuesday that the negotiation between the suspect with
Bali antinarcotics squad officers was made at the suspect's
residence in Danau Poso.

Before the negotiation took place, drug enforcement officers
contacted Bali Police, saying that the man was in Bali, said IGK
Kesuma.

The suspect, who married a Sumatran woman with whom he had one
child, has two different U.S. passports and two aliases. He kept
moving from one place to another, Kesuma said.

Soon after Bali Police managed to trace his whereabouts,
several plainclothes officers were posted around his residence.

Kesuma said he believed Belcher was aware of being watched by
local police and managed to disappear for one day.

"He might have called the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta on that day
he disappeared. The embassy then called the Drug Enforcement
Administration, which then contacted the National Police
Headquarters in Jakarta," Kesuma said. (zen)