In addition to the Tanzanian man who was arrested for attempting to smuggle meth into Bali via his stomach, a press conference held yesterday by the Bali Police also featured an American man who was arrested on Feb 3. for allegedly attempting to import cannabis onto the island.
Reportedly sent from Taiwan, the cannabis packages were discovered stashed inside computer keyboards in the international cargo arrivals at Ngurah Rai Airport on Thurs, January 31, as per the report by Kompas.
“Based on the results of the X-Ray machine scan, our officers were suspicious of a Taiwanese shipment package addressed to recipients with the initials ‘AH’ and ‘RMA’. The clerk then carried out an in-depth inspection of the package and found a computer keyboard that had two white tissue packs [containing cannabis] inside,” explained Husni Syaiful of the regional Directorate General of Customs and Excise yesterday.
According to Syaiful, the supposed recipient—identified by the initials ‘RMA’—was tracked down during a controlled delivery of the package in the Denpasar area.
However, suspect ‘RMA’ reportedly claimed that the package belonged to someone else, identified by the initial ‘A’. In turn, suspect ‘A’ identified the true owner of the package to be sixty-year old American citizen Husein Ashadi Bahri.
At yesterday’s press conference, Bahri appeared visibly upset, with officers having to literally drag him up the stairs.
Bahri faces a maximum of 15 years in jail if convicted in addition to a fine of up to IDR10 billion (US$713,163). We could find no reports stating that RMA or A had been charged.
Bahri is certainly not the first person in Indonesia to be charged with drug possession after somebody else who was actually caught in possession of narcotics claimed that they were in fact for somebody else. Just yesterday, a man in South Sulawesi who had been charged with possession of 3.4 kg of meth was found ‘not guilty’ after the case’s four key witnesses — who were the ones originally caught transporting the meth — changed their testimonies. At the hearing, they claimed that the true owner of the drugs had promised to pay them in exchange for false testimony, but had failed to fulfill his promise.
