Eight Australians arrested in Bali drug raids

[Torsten]

Eight Australians arrested in Bali drug raids

Mon Apr 18, 2005 06:00 AM BST

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CANBERRA (Reuters) - Eight Australians have been arrested on drugs charges on the Indonesian island of Bali, where an Australian woman is already facing a possible death sentence on drug smuggling charges, Australian officials said on Monday.

Australia-Indonesia relations could be seriously damaged if the death penalty was carried out in the case of Australian Schapelle Corby, 27, who is awaiting a verdict in her trial of attempting to smuggle marijuana into Bali, say analysts.

Seven Australian men and one woman have been detained on Bali on charges of attempting to export drugs, said a spokeswoman for Australia's foreign affairs department.

Five were arrested at Bali's Ngurah Rai airport and three were arrested at a Bali hotel, she said, adding Indonesian authorities were conducting a chemical analysis to determine the quantity and type of drugs seized.

The arrests come as Corby is due back in court on Thursday to hear whether prosecutors will ask for the death penalty on charges she attempted to smuggle 4.1 kg of marijuana into Bali in 2004.

Corby has said she did not know the drugs were in her luggage and her lawyers have said the drugs could have been planted in her belongings. Corby has collapsed several times in court under stress, postponing proceedings.

The Corby case has attracted wide publicity in Australia and an Australian government minister has travelled to Indonesia to ask whether she could serve out a prison sentence at home if convicted.

source Reuters

[faustus]

damn it's a small world. the alleged ringleader of the group andrew chan went to my primary school. in yr 3/4 i threw a basketball that bounced off the ring and hit him on the head, fucked him up pretty bad cos it opened some stitches. he was a decent guy but recently i bumped into a school chum who said he was involved with a chinese gang.

[macro]

It probably means shit all in a legal sense, and as stupid as what they did was (if they did it), casting rumours from associates about their associations publically on the web isn't going to help their case.

[ 20. April 2005, 15:28: Message edited by: macro ]

[bloodbob]

In my opinon these guys should probably be nominated for a darwin award :/

[2b]

I agree the drug game is like gambling , you pull up a seat at the table and deal yourself in for as much as you want to loose. If you win the returns are great and if you loose you have to pay up.

[Blairis78]

this whole thing makes me sick, the AFP has written the death warrants of some incredibly young stupid people they dont deserve to die for this. Why could they not be arrested in Australia??

[Amulte]

much agreed, they are australian citizens so they should be treated as such!

not to face death in another country

[Blairis78]

with a spinelss government like ours 'looking after us' (and I use the term loosely) god help any aussie citizen who gets into trouble overseas, what a scary thought!

[gerbil]

Fair enough it was a really farken stupid thing to do, but back to basics, people shouldn't be facing firing squads no matter what they've done.

Ah I don't know, it's just pretty upsetting seeing footage of them looking absolutely shit scared and knowing that they more than likely will get the death penalty all over drugs. There is just too much hysteria and vast contrast between drugs that masses deem acceptable and otherwise. I just can't seem to make any sense of such differences in attitudes because of the social acceptability. Go to a pub in bali and alcohol is fine, but heroin will bring about death penalty? Anyone else really bloody lost over hmmm i dont know... life? LOL

Even the marijuana case, it's just intoxicating plant material that's evolved and grown on the earth like ourselves, why all the fucking barriers against actual life on the planet? Why do people think we are such superior fucking life forms??

[apothecary]

gerbil:

Even the marijuana case, it's just intoxicating plant material that's evolved and grown on the earth like ourselves, why all the fucking barriers against actual life on the planet? Why do people think we are such superior fucking life forms??

Mmm. Why do people think we are such superior life forms that we can remove the males from a set of plants and only let the females live and not reproduce?

Why do people think we are such a superior form that we can then kill this plant before it would naturally die and then chop it up and set it on fire?

Those kind of arguments are mostly retarded, but I think it illustrates something.

[Blairis78]

Well for one thing plants dont have emotions and feelings, which they need to surpress like we humans do

[Torsten]

when I used to travel to parties overseas a bit I also carried drugs on me sometimes. But I would NEVER take them through a country that had the death penalty. If i had to go via Thailand I'd even throw out all my supplements just in case something had gotten in there. I'd look in every little pocket to make sure that there wasn't an e or a trip lodged in there somehwere. I'd put good secure locks on all my bags, including my bum bag, cos I've seen just how clever pick pockets can be, so I presume they can also put stuff into your bags without you knowing. I would have NEVER contemplated taking drugs into a through a country that had the death penalty.

So, no matter how scared they are now, they must have known what risks they were taking and hence I don't have a lot of energy for them.

Shapelle Corby on the other hand is a totally different story. There is a good possibility that she is actually innocent.

None of this changes the fact that what the australian government did is in my eyes criminal. We do not deport people to countries where they may face the death penalty upon return, so similarly we should not share intelligence with countries that will impose the death penalty as a result of such information. That is just sick and makes Australia no better than Indonesia.

All this is obviously commentary of the status quo. At the core of all this is american drug policy driving these injustices and that is where we really need to point our frustration.

(i should point out that my drug travelling days were more than 10 years ago, so I can talk about it without legal implications now :D

ummm, and in case I wasn't clear, this was always personal use only - I had this thing about only taking drugs that were well tested )

[ 23. April 2005, 19:51: Message edited by: Torsten ]

[jasemateau]

well the corby case is interesting in many aspects.

for one why would you even think of smuggeling dirth ol pot into indonesia, when a gram of the stuff its 3-5 times cheaper over there RETAIL like from the hundreds of drug dealers on the streets.

and what about the video evidence going missing from the qantas check in terminal??????

(Corporate boys) oh fuck her we got a Billion dollar business to run, find out who put the shit in here bags and have them fired for stealing or consistant absenteism.

problem solved tax man get his tax dollars, qantas still has a semi untarnished reputation.

bloody ripper mate well done MR Costello would be proud.

its a crazy voice i have in me head.

having traveled a fair bit myself i never ever bothered with drugs while traveling, except in mexico. the dangers are to great. good thing i saw midnight express at a young age.

as for the mexico situation i had got rid of compleatly all the stash, washed all my clothes clothes wiped the inner part of my bag (plastic samsonite) with mouth wash.

and i still got stoped in houston for a positive reading of expolsive residue on my bag locks from those new electronic sniffer thingys.

kids it aint worth it!!!!

i was sweating for a too long on this occasian.

dont even think about it anymore, besides you you always have interesting experiences with local technology. this requires other forms of common sense.

[nabraxas]

i wonder though, how difficult it would be to not notice that the boogie board you claimed off the luggage carousel was now 4.5kg ov MJ?

either way, i don't think she'll manage 10 years in an Indo jail.

[incognito]

i heard that if she gets life, she spends it in an aussie jail with a right to appeal?

[gerbil]

apothecary:

 

apothecary:

Even the marijuana case, it's just intoxicating plant material that's evolved and grown on the earth like ourselves, why all the fucking barriers against actual life on the planet? Why do people think we are such superior fucking life forms??

Mmm. Why do people think we are such superior life forms that we can remove the males from a set of plants and only let the females live and not reproduce?

Why do people think we are such a superior form that we can then kill this plant before it would naturally die and then chop it up and set it on fire?

Those kind of arguments are mostly retarded, but I think it illustrates something.

If you wanted to raise it, it's not retarded.

Maybe it's just my thought process, but ending a plants life to utilise it doesn't seem to make humans a superior life, if anything it makes humans have a more symbiotic life with the planet and its inhabitants. I'll chop a tree for shelter, how am i superior? I need that tree for shelter, the tree doesn't need me, if anything the tree is a superior here. It's when we literally remove ourselves from nature and completely dismiss history of the life on the planet and how things can be utilised for benefit where things fuck up imo.

Having the mentality that a select group of naturally occuring compounds are straight out deadly no further discussion when they can be immensely beneficial is what i'm on about, now that is the whole 'humans are superior to any other life on the planet' mentality. In marijuanas case, maybe some people feel we are lower life forms than plants and the plants have alot to teach us, whether it be plant spirit or simply molecules within. Growing the plant and picking it at it's most advantageous point for personal growth, would this person be of that mentality?

We eat animal meat for food, i've got no problems having animals lives ended early for consumption, within reason though, i don't mean slaughter every living thing, I don't feel humans are superior beings to animals for ending it's life before time for it to be utilised appropriately.

Anyhoo probably a little off topic, either way people shouldn't be facing death over ANY drug no matter how safe or dangerous any person deems it.

And yeah, I agree about US policy driving all this, now there is a large group of government folk who feel they are superior life forms, hmm fancy growing up, getting a job where you had the power to have people killed, doesn't seem humane to me. 'Hi i'm a plumber, i work my arse off in filthy conditions. Oh hi well i studied law and got into a top position, i have the power to kill people'

Anyway don't take any notice of this post, just some mindless ranting

[ 24. April 2005, 01:40: Message edited by: gerbil ]

[incognito]

way i see it, and i may be to cynical here,to many people on earth at the moment,we can do without some heroin dealers/junkies, if they are stoopid enuff to try that shit in a country that carries a death sentence for that exact crime, fuk em' get rid of some stoopid ones to boot.

ive got junkies in my family,im not a fan,plus ive had a bad day so grrrrr :mad:

[Rev]

yeah fukit

its a tenuous position but IMHO not all drugs r equal

despite some intrigueing arguments for that position by others

Weed should definitely not be in the same class as Heroin

Someone who tries to import Heroin or contaminated meth 'Yaba' or crack into Australia deserves what they get.

Some drugs any idiot knows are going to hurt people and which fuel the most insidious of networks and i cant see any good coming out of these addictive drugs.

If itd been LSD, MJ, E or other non addictive drugs id think differently cos plenty of people manage their habits well and not so much damage is done esecially with education

Hang around a place like Nimbin any length of time and see the soul-less junkies whacked on on the horse and you might take the same opinion. It gives me the shits what core humanity some people will suspend to make a buck

[Jesus On Peyote]

jono:

way i see it, and i may be to cynical here,to many people on earth at the moment,we can do without some heroin dealers/junkies, if they are stoopid enuff to try that shit in a country that carries a death sentence for that exact crime, fuk em' get rid of some stoopid ones to boot.

ive got junkies in my family,im not a fan,plus ive had a bad day so grrrrr :mad:

damn right,they got busted so they should face the punishment every other smuggler faces in indonasia.

has anyone noticed that both with corby and these guys people are trying to make exuses for em?? dont blame the AFP for informing the indo police about em,if they dident have the smack straped to their chest then they would be home safe by now.

[2b]

 

quote:

---

if they are stoopid enuff to try that shit in a country that carries a death sentence for that exact crime, fuk em' get rid of some stoopid ones to boot.

---

I hear this all day around me and i used to agree with these very sentiments , but. Imagine , just for an instance that these people are dumb , really fuckin dumb should we treat them the same as the guys runing this operation ? Thousands (millions) of people start smoking every year , why ? Don't they know the risks ? Are they stupid ? Do they even care ? May-be they just think that they will risk it ?

In my opinion it's a sad but true fact that some of us are smarter than others and people will always try to exploit these types of people. Throw in threat of physical harm to you and your family or the lure of great ritches and I'm suprised they only got 9 of 'em , becasuse I'm sure you wouldn't have to go far to find plenty willing to take it on.

[ 28. April 2005, 07:14: Message edited by: 2b ]

[simon_marklar]

fuck if my family was threatened i'd be very scared, being in another country, people threatening to kill me and my family if i dont do what they say...

for everyone that said they deserve to die, i'd like to see the choices you'd make if a gun was held to your parents head...

(they should of run to the aussie embasy and spilled the beans, but people dont think straight with that kind of pressure put on them - and they might not of had the chance.)

[gerbil]

Great post 2b, really well written.

It's hard making correct judgement when so many facts aren't released and most of the public is in the dark, so all people can do is speculate.

Whatever the case, I just don't see what execution will solve in this situation. By the look of it and the reports it looks like they are bottom of the feeding chain, just mules to carry things.

So they are executed, the drugs will probably go back on the street by corrupt police, the people making the drugs will continue to make more and will continue to send more and more couriers, what does killing the courier achieve? Yes they are doing the wrong thing but what does it acheive? It has absolutely no benefit towards the goal of having 'clean' societies, it simply doesn't work like that.

On top of all that, I don't trust indonesian police force aswell as the government, even basic things like taking fingerprints from the bag in the corby case, apparently they didn't even do that before putting their own hands all over it. Everything just seems very suss with police/government in developing/underdeveloped countries and high profit drugs being produced in the area, I don't have solid proof, but there's no doubt corruption is extremely prevelant in situations like this, drugs cases especially.

[waterdragon]

i smell the stench of politics on this. it is outlandish for the feds to hand over a bust to the indonesions. we've all seen the glory hounds at work here in australia patting themselves on the back and milking it for all it's worth when they get a big bust so one of two things has probably happened-

1. the indonesian police jumped too early to get themselves some glory or

2. the australian authorities (knowing full well the implications) have arranged this bust on indonesian soil to generate some outrage among the australian public when these people are executed, for some as yet unseen purpose.

sounds paranoid but if a government can send troops to another country to kill innocents based on a lie then nothing is beneath them.

[Gimli]

10 years and time for a bump

Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan are nearing their execution. A candlelight vigil was held in Sydney last night to show support. You do the crime, you do the time.

There was some good comments on 2UE radio..

Since they have been imprisoned they have apparently turned to art and god, do you really think they would have turned to art and god had they succeeded in importing the drugs? Highly doubt it.

Do you agree with capital punishment ?

Why are we not holding candlelight vigil for any other person on deathrow?

Funny how everyone will bitch about sharia law being implemented here but when it comes to heroin drug smugglers getting the death penalty suddenly a lot of Australians want another country to change its laws to suit us? Hypocritical much

[-YT-]

Interesting in terms of we have known they would eventually be executed but left it all to now to kick up a stink which primarily seems to be instigated by the media at a time with low coalition ratings im not gonna to say its an all out distraction as the topic is quite hefty. The media timing as per usual is questionable but nothing new there. There was a vigil for Van Nguyen... in Singapore no where near the support of this particular instance although social media etc probably played a role.

Off course they wouldn't have turned to god/art if they were successful. in most situations people would tend to take the path of least resistance in a foreign jail i would assume it would be no different whether the rehabilitation is truly real or an affront is hard for us too answer. that said certainly some would spend the time in self reflection and indeed ten years is much time to contemplate past motivations, personal growth etc.

Capital punishment has always been a heavy topic,imo not so sure the courts of men are as just as we would like to think they are certainly many instances of death being given for false convictions stacked/mock courts, ideology, emotion etc. Its kinda weird to read about some of the more high profile public executions and trials leading to them (especially in the recent past) the amount of blood lust the public exhibited was sickening.