Plane Stopped on I Gusti Ngurah Rai Runway, Interpol Fugitive Aboard

The Ngurah Rai Immigration Office successfully thwarted the departure of an Australian fugitive wanted by Interpol at I Gusti Ngurah Rai International Airport in Bali. The man is suspected of involvement in transnational crime. Head of the Ngurah Rai Immigration Office, Bugie Kurniawan, stated that the perpetrator used another person’s travel documents to deceive immigration officers. During the immigration inspection process, irregularities were detected in a passenger holding a Brazilian passport under the name GAM, who had no record of entry into Indonesia or a valid residence permit. The three other passengers were cleared. Officers decided to postpone GAM’s departure for a thorough investigation. However, before further action could be taken, all passengers sneaked onto the aircraft without permission, and the plane prepared for take-off, disregarding the officers’ instructions. On Saturday, 6 June 2026, at around 10:00 PM local time, immigration officers conducting checks on passengers of the private CAPA JET flight number N917CJ, travelling from Denpasar to Maputo, Mozambique, at the South Terminal of I Gusti Ngurah Rai Airport, identified an Australian fugitive on board. The aircraft was carrying three crew members and four foreign national passengers: ARR (Portugal), GAM (Brazil), GS (Italy), and FMJ (Brazil). Responding to the situation, immigration officers immediately coordinated with airport authorities to stop the flight and ordered the plane to return from the runway to the VIP Terminal. After the plane was successfully forced back, officers conducted a sweep and found GAM hiding in the aircraft toilet, while the other three passengers were in the cabin. Further examination revealed that the Brazilian passport in the name of GAM was fake. The 55-year-old man’s true identity is AP, an Australian citizen born in Whyalla, Australia. The system detected that AP is on Interpol’s HIT list with a 100% match score as a suspect. Based on a request for information from the National Central Bureau (NCB) Canberra, AP is suspected of being a fugitive sought by international law enforcement in connection with a transnational crime case. According to an Interpol notice, AP is known to be an influential figure in a Transnational Serious Organised Crime (TSOC) network and a prominent member of a motorcycle gang. The Australian Federal Police (AFP) stated that AP is responsible for a series of large-scale illegal narcotics smuggling operations into Australian territory. The individual is known to have evaded law enforcement for a long time and was allegedly attempting to leave the region covertly using illegally obtained travel documents to flee beyond the reach of the law and continue his network’s activities from outside Australia. Responding to the findings, the Ngurah Rai Immigration Office coordinated with the Directorate of Narcotics Crime at the Indonesian National Police’s Criminal Investigation Agency and the Police International Relations Division to investigate the case and communicate with foreign law enforcement. In parallel, the Directorate General of Customs and Excise inspected the aircraft and its entire cargo. Due to indications of the subject’s involvement in a transnational crime network, international cooperation was also undertaken with the United States’ Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the AFP. As a follow-up to the findings, all passengers, crew, and the aircraft were subject to a departure delay during the investigation. AP was officially detained, placed on a lifetime entry ban from Indonesian territory, and subsequently deported to face legal proceedings in Australia.