DENPASAR, Indonesia — Three British nationals were charged Tuesday in a Bali court for smuggling nearly one kilogram (over two pounds) of cocaine into Indonesia. Under the country’s strict drug laws, they face the death penalty, a sentence sometimes carried out by firing squad.
Jonathan Christopher Collyer, 28, and Lisa Ellen Stocker, 29, were arrested on February 1 after customs officers discovered suspicious items in their luggage disguised as food packages. Prosecutor I Made Dipa Umbara said tests confirmed that sachets of Angel Delight powdered dessert mix in their bags contained a total of 993.56 grams (2.19 pounds) of cocaine, valued at approximately 6 billion rupiah ($368,000).
Two days later, police arrested Phineas Ambrose Float, 31, following a controlled delivery in which Collyer and Stocker handed over the drugs to him in a Denpasar hotel parking lot. Float is being tried separately.
The drugs were transported from England to Indonesia with a transit stop at Doha’s international airport in Qatar. According to Ponco Indriyo, Deputy Director of the Bali Police Narcotics Unit, this group had successfully smuggled cocaine into Bali twice before being caught on their third attempt.
The trial was adjourned until June 10, when witness testimony is scheduled to begin. Neither the defendants nor their lawyers commented after the hearing.
Indonesia has around 530 people on death row, including 96 foreigners, mostly for drug offenses, according to the Ministry of Immigration and Corrections. The last executions took place in July 2016. Notably, British woman Lindsay Sandiford has been on death row since 2012 for smuggling 3.8 kilograms of cocaine into Bali.
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime identifies Indonesia as a major drug-smuggling hub, partly because drug syndicates target the country’s young population despite its harsh drug laws.
