bali bust: 9 aussies face death
Nine Australians arrested in a dramatic Bali heroin bust will face a firing squad if convicted of trying to smuggle heroin out of Indonesia and into Australia.
Australian consular officials said it was "by far" the largest number of drug- related detentions of Australians ever in Indonesia. Indonesian investigators said a total of 11.25kg of the drug was seized.
The nine eight men and one woman were nabbed by Indonesian authorities on Sunday night following an Australian Federal Police operation dating back to February.
Five were arrested at Bali airport while waiting for a flight to Sydney. Four were held at the departure lounge allegedly with bags of heroin strapped to their bodies, the head of the island's police anti-drugs squad, Colonel Bambang Sugiarto, said.
A fifth man the alleged 21-year-old Sydney drug ring boss nicknamed the "Godfather" was pulled off the Australian Airlines plane with no drugs and later protested his innocence when paraded before reporters.
"What ever happened to Schapelle Corby happened to me. They are convicting me of something I didn't do," the suspect told reporters.
Colonel Sugiarto said the case mirrored Corby's marijuana trafficking case, but was potentially more serious.
"It involves exporting or importing drugs. If found guilty, death penalty," he said.
The colonel said 10.9kg of heroin was seized at the airport and 350g was found at a hotel. No charges have yet been laid.
Colonel Sugiarto said the police surveillance operation which led to the arrests had centred on three hotels, the beachfront Hard Rock resort and Ahdi Dharma in Kuta as well as the Melasti Hotel in Tuban.
The four detained at the airport were allegedly found with plastic-wrapped packages of heroin weighing between 2.4kg and 3.3kg strapped to their legs and stomachs with brown masking tape.
The AFP said the four allegedly carrying the drugs included two men from Brisbane, both aged 19, a 29-year-old man from Sydney and a 27-year-old woman from Sydney.
Indonesian police said the woman had a drug package strapped under a dress.
Soon after, four other men were taken into custody at a Bali hotel a 27-year-old Brisbane man, and three men from Sydney aged 18, 20 and 24, the AFP said.
Australian Federal Police border and international network national manager Mike Phelan said investigations were also under way in Australia.
"We have executed a number of search warrants today in both Sydney and Brisbane and we will certainly be looking through that information of the search warrants to see how the picture unfolds."
In Canberra, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said the arrests were made in Indonesia and not in Australia where there is no death penalty because that was where the alleged offences occurred.
Colonel Sugiarto said that before the search one man claimed to have had a broken leg, which accounted for a bulge in his clothing.
But after questioning all allegedly confessed they had been carrying the drugs for their "boss". Police then raided the Melasti Hotel and arrested another four people found with sandwich-sized blocks of heroin. Traces of the drug were also found in two suitcases, police said, displaying a fake designer bag filled with rubber gloves and packaging.
Colonel Sugiarto said the drugs had come from the notorious "Golden Triangle" area in northern Thailand and Burma, and was being couriered through Bali to Australia by the nine.
The gang had been acting "mysteriously and suspiciously" all week, staying in their hotel rooms and instructing hotel staff not to reveal their identities to anyone.
