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)