Police arrest Briton, Australian on trial for drugs
The Jakarta Post, Denpasar/Medan
The Bali Police have arrested a total of 21 suspects, including a British citizen, for drug-related offenses in a series of operations throughout this month, while in the North Sumatra capital of Medan, an Australian teacher went on trial for illegal drug possession.
The Bali Police said on Monday they had confiscated 54 ecstasy pills, 4.3 grams of hashish, 14 g of shabu-shabu (crystal methamphetamine) and 1,048.3 g of dried marijuana.
"The arrests were the result of an intensive, extended operation from Oct. 7 until Oct. 27. The operation involved various methods available to us, including raids, interception, surveillance and under-cover buying," Bali Police spokesperson Sr. Comr. AS Reniban said.
The British citizen was identified as 46-year-old Nicholas Simon Myring. His temporary residence in Bali was on Jl. Kunti, in the growing tourism village of Seminyak in west Kuta. His passport revealed he resided in the Netherlands.
The details of his arrest are sketchy. However, a related police report mentioned that Myring was arrested at around 5 p.m. on Oct. 22 in a street in Kerobokan village, some 15 kilometers west of Denpasar. The arresting officers found 4.3 g of hashish stashed inside a book -- an organizer with a black, hard cover -- the suspect was carrying.
"We are still questioning him, trying to establish where, how and from whom did he acquire the illegal substance," Reniban added.
The operation's biggest seize took place at midnight on Oct. 27 when they stopped a car driven by Triono Sugeng Widodo, a suspected drug dealer.
The officers searched the vehicle and found 645.6 g of marijuana and 35 ecstasy pills neatly hidden under the passenger's seat. A further search at the suspect's house yielded 11.8 g of similar contraband stashed under a floor tile in Widodo's room.
In Medan, prosecutors indicted on Monday an Australian, Graham Clifford Payne, 21, for the illegal possession of 0.1 g of shabu- shabu and 2,162 illegal pills.
For the 30-minute first court session on the case, presided over by judge I Wayan Padang, the defendant, who had been in Medan for two months at the time of his arrest, was accompanied by two Indonesian lawyers and a translator.
In a five-page indictment, prosecutor Markos Simaremare found the defendant had violated article 78 of Law 22/1967 on narcotics and article 62 Law 5/1995 on psychotropic substances.
If found guilty, he could face the maximum penalty for illegal narcotics possession of 10 years in jail and another five years for the illegal possession of psychotropic substances. The trial was adjourned until Nov. 22 when witnesses' statements will be heard.
The two are the latest in a series of trials and arrests of foreigners as the country steps up its fight against illegal drugs.
In August, an Australian, John Julian Pyle, was sentenced to five months in jail after being found guilty of possessing 1.8 g of hashish. An Australian woman, Schapelle Corby, is currently serving a 15-year jail term in Kerobokan prison for smuggling 4.2 kilograms of marijuana to Bali in a case that attracted huge media attention in her home country.
In Denpasar, Australian model Michelle Leslie began her trial last week for carrying ecstasy pills, while since mid-October nine other Australians have been on trial for trying to smuggle heroin from Bali to Australia.