Indonesian police arrest an Australian man for allegedly smuggling cocaine to Bali

DENPASAR, Indonesia — Indonesian authorities arrested an Australian man for allegedly smuggling cocaine on the tourist island of Bali, a charge that could carry the death penalty, officials said Monday.

The Southeast Asian country has extremely strict drug laws, and convicted smugglers are sometimes executed by firing squad.

Lamar Aaron Ahchee, 43, from Cairns in north Queensland, was arrested May 22, after police raided his rented house near Kuta beach, a popular tourist spot, and seized 1.7 kilograms (3.7 pounds) cocaine in 206 clip plastic bags, along with a digital scale and cellular phone, said Bali Police Chief Daniel Adityajaya.

The arrest followed an investigation conducted by Bali Police anti-drug surveillance teams who reported the man had received two suspicious packages sent by mail from England, Adityajaya said.

''He is suspected of importing or distributing class 1 narcotics,'' Adityajaya told a news conference in the provincial capital, Denpasar. ''He is threatened with the death penalty or life imprisonment.''

Adityajaya said a preliminary investigation showed that the Australian had ordered a motorcycle taxi driver through the Grab online service on May 21, to pick up two packages at a post office in Denpasar.

The driver was told to hand the two packages to a motorcycle taxi driver from another online service, who was ordered to deliver them to Ahchee's rented house, Adityajaya said.

Adityajaya said the suspect told authorities during a police interrogation that he was asked by someone he referred to as ''Boss,'' to take the package and distribute it in Bali. He was promised 50 million rupiah ($3,000) for handling the cocaine.

Police on Monday presented the accused at the news conference. He was wearing an orange detainee jumpsuit and a buff mask, with his hands handcuffed. The man did not make a statement.

One of his lawyers, Edward Pangkahila, said his team would accompany his client during the police questioning ''to see the progress of the investigation.''

''He is not the owner of the cocaine, he is just a dealer,'' Pangkahila said, ''The police must be able to chase and arrest the person who is acting as his boss, to reveal this case fairly.''

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime says Indonesia is a major drug-smuggling hub despite having some of the strictest drug laws in the world, in part because international drug syndicates target its young population.

Denpasar District Court on Tuesday is scheduled to read out a verdict against Thomas Parker, a British national who was arrested on Jan. 21, after he allegedly collected a package containing drugs from a motorcycle taxi driver.

Indonesian authorities arrested an Argentinian woman and a British man in March for allegedly smuggling 324 grams (0.7 pounds) of cocaine on the tourist island of Bali.

About 530 people, including 96 foreigners, are on death row in Indonesia, mostly for drug-related crimes, the Ministry of Immigration and Corrections' data showed. Indonesia's last executions, of an Indonesian and three foreigners, were carried out in July 2016.

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Associated Press writer Niniek Karmini in Jakarta, Indonesia, contributed to this report.