FOREIGNERS ARRESTED AND SENTENCED TO DEATH FOR DRUGS IN BALI

FOREIGNERS ARRESTED FOR DRUGS IN BALI

inside Kerobokan Prison in Bali, where people caught with drugs in Bali are sent abc.net.au

In 2012, there were 22 arrests — including four Brits — in Bali for drugs and 23 in 2011, including a Danish woman. These numbers don’t include the arrests that never get reported due to payoffs to police. In November 2019, a court in Bali sentenced two Thais to 16-year prison terms for smuggling one kilogram (2.2 pounds) of methamphetamine. In 2020, an American man was sentenced to 9 years and four months in prison after he was found guilty of selling cocaine and marijuana on Bali.

In September 2007, Ronald Ramsay, 39, the younger brother of British celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay, was sentenced to 10 months in prison and fined $530 for heroin possession in Bali. He was arrested in February 2006 with 100 milligrams (0.004 ounce) of heroin in his pocket during a search outside a supermarke. Ramsay could have faced up to 10 years in jail, but the panel of three judges decided to be lenient after he pleaded guilty and expressed remorse. [Source: Associated Press, September 13, 2007]

In May 2021, Kenneth Daniel Kutsch, a British man who has a hotel business on neighboring Lombok island, and his Indonesian partner, Ni Ketut Dewi Seniwati, were arrested in the parking lot of a restaurant in Bali after residents reported narcotic transactions in the area, police said. Badung police chief Roby Septiadi said officers seized 223 grams (7.9 ounces) of marijuana from Kutsch and his partner. “We are still deepening the investigation. But judging from the evidence, it could lead to him being a dealer,” Septiadi. The two men, dressed in orange, were shown to journalists at a news conference. [Source: Firdia Lisnawati, Associated Press, May 24, 2021]

Badung police said they also arrested Italian tourist Francesco D’Alesio for possession of 94 grams (3.2 ounces) of cocaine valued at $28,000. Police said D’Alesio has been stranded on Bali because of the COVID-19 pandemic and has actively used cocaine during his stay. “We are still investigating the large amount of evidence we have obtained to determine the source of the narcotics,” Badung police Narcotic Unit chief I Putu Budi Artama said.

In April 2011, the Denpasar District Court sentenced a Japanese man to 18 years in prison after finding him guilty of smuggling 5.9 kilograms of hashish onto the island. Yuki Morita, 35, was found “legally and convincingly guilty” of the crime, the panel of judges ruled. They added three years to the prosecutors’ sentencing request as a “deterrent” to others considering smuggling drugs into Bali. Morita was arrested with the drug at Bali’s Ngurah Rai International Airport last November 2010. He had previously served a prison term in India for drugs offences. He was fined US$583,000 or an additional year in jail if unable to pay it [Source: Bali Times, April 29, 2011].

In July 2019, former Melbourne nightclub promoter William Cabantog and his fellow Australian David van Iersel were arrested in a police raid at the Lost City Club in Bali’s trendy Canggu neighborhood with 1.12 grams (.04 ounces) of cocaine in the pocket of Cabantog’s jeans. Police initially said that Cabantog, 37, was well known for circulating cocaine in Canggu, where the nightclub was managed by Van Iersel, 39. But during the trial, the two men were able to convince the judges that the cocaine was only for their own use. Cabantog was sentenced to 12 months and Van Iersel got nine months. Cabantog was released from Kerobokan prison in Bali after serving a year. [Source: Firdia Lisnawati, Associated Press, July 25, 2020]

In May 2025, a court on island of Bali sentenced a British man to 10 months in jail for drug offenses after a charge that could carry the death penalty was dropped. The same month Indonesian authorities arrested an Australian for allegedly smuggling cocaine into Bali. [Source: Associated Press Videos, May 27, 2025]

Foreigners Sentenced to Death for Drugs in Bali

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In January 2003, Steven Turner, 47, was arrested with more than 8,000 ecstasy tablets in Bali. Turner was two weeks late in claiming two packages sent by two people in London, raising the suspicions of postal and customs officials, who alerted police. Inside were nearly 6,000 ecstasy tablets hidden in clothing or stashed in plastic bottles. "When we searched Steven Turner's house, we found another 2,220 pills hidden in the roof. Perhaps he thought we're stupid in that he dared to bring in such illegal drugs," said Major General Budi Setyawan, the police chief in Bali. "This is the most important arrest for the biggest drug find," he added. Local police claim the Englishman confessed to owning the pills and they added that, under the country's tough anti-drug laws, he could face execution if convicted. Mr Turner arrived in Bali on a tourist visa in October, 2002. At that time a least five foreigners are awaiting execution for drugs offences around Indonesia. [Source: Terri Judd. The Independent, January 4, 2003]

In January 2013, British grandmother Lindsay Sandiford, 56, was sentenced to death after 3.8 kilograms (8.4 pounds) of cocaine, worth $2.5 million, was found the lining of her suitcase at Bali’s airport in May 22. She spent years in Kerobokan Prison while she appealed, joining three other foreigners who were in the jail on death row at that time. An Indonesian court sentenced Sandiford to death even though prosecutors had sought only a 15-year sentence. Associated Press reported: “Sandiford wept when judges handed down the sentence and declined to speak to reporters on her way back to prison, covering her face with a floral scarf. She had claimed in court that she was forced to take the drugs into the country by a gang that was threatening to hurt her children. Sandiford's lawyer said she would appeal, a process that can take several years.[Source: Firdia Lisnawati, January 22, 2013]

Sandiford's alleged accomplice, Briton Julian Anthony Pounder, was accused of receiving the drugs in Bali Two other British citizens and an Indian had already been convicted and sentenced to prison in connection with the case. In its verdict, a panel of Denpasar District Court judges concluded that Sandiford had damaged the image of Bali as a tourism destination and weakened the government's drug prevention program. "We found no reason to lighten her sentence," said Amser Simanjuntak, who headed the judicial panel. Sandiford was still on death row as of 2025.

Three Brits Face the Death Penalty For Smuggling a Kilo of Cocaine into Bali

In June 2025, three British nationals — Phineas Ambrose Float (31), Jonathan Christopher Collyer (38), and Lisa Ellen Stocker (39) — were charged with smuggling nearly a kilogram (over two pounds) of cocaine into Bali. They face the death penalty under the country's strict drug laws. Collyer and Stocker were arrested in February 2024 after customs officers halted them at the X-ray machine after finding suspicious items in their luggage disguised as food packages, said prosecutor I Made Dipa Umbara. [Source: Firdia Lisnawati, Associated Press, June 3, 2025]

Associated Press reported: Umbara told the District Court in Denpasar that a lab test result confirmed that ten sachets of Angel Delight powdered dessert mix in Collyer’s luggage combined with seven similar sachets in his partner’s suitcase contained 993.56 grams (2.19 pounds) of cocaine, worth an estimated $368,000. Two days later, authorities arrested Float after a controlled delivery set up by police in which the other two suspects handed the drug to him in the parking area of a hotel in Denpasar. He is being tried separately.

The drugs were brought from England to Indonesia with a transit in the Doha international airport in Qatar, Umbara said. The group successfully smuggled cocaine into Bali on two previous occasions before being caught on their third attempt, said Ponco Indriyo, the Deputy Director of the Bali Police Narcotics Unit. After the charges against the three were read, the panel of three judges adjourned the trial until a week later when the court heard witness testimony.

Foreigners Arrested for Drugs on Bali Paraded with Their Hands and Feet Tied

In November and December 2019, six foreigners — a Swiss man, a Thai man, a Singaporean woman, a Chilean man and two Hong Kong men — were arrested for trying to smuggle drugs in Bali and later paraded in orange detainee uniforms, with their feet and hands tied, at a news conference in Denpasar, the capital of Bali province. [Source: Associated Press, December 18, 2019]

Customs spokesman for the Bali and Nusatenggara regional office, Wachid Kurniawan, said the suspects were arrested separately upon arrival at the airport. Kurniawan said the Swiss man was arrested November 4 with a total of 30.04 grams (1.06 ounces) of marijuana in his luggage. Two days later, customs officers nabbed the Thai man with 17.76 grams (0.6 ounce) of marijuana concealed in his underwear.

“He said the Singaporean woman was captured November 14 after immigration officer found a small plastic with 0.35 gram (0.01 ounce) of cocaine inside her passport, while the Chilean man was nabbed two weeks later with 77.26 grams (2.7 ounces) of liquid methamphetamine in his black suitcase. The Hong Kong man was arrested December 4 with 3.2 kilograms (7 pounds) of crystal methamphetamine in his luggage, and his 19-year-old fellow Hong Kong national was captured last week with 4 kilograms (8.8 pounds) of crystal methamphetamine wrapped in four branded pet food packaging in his luggage, Kurniawan said.

Schapelle Corby Case

Schapelle Leigh Corby (born in 1977) is an Australian woman convicted of drug smuggling in Bali. She spent nine years imprisoned in Bali’s Kerobokan Prison. After her arrest Corby publicly maintained that the drugs were planted in her boogie board bag and that she did not know about them, Her trial, conviction and detention were big new in Australian. [Source: Wikipedia, Washington Post, News Corp Australia Network]

Corby was arrested at Bali’s Ngurah Rai airport in October 2004, when she was a 27-year-old a beauty school student, and convicted in May 2005 for the importation of 4.2 kilograms (9.3 pounds) of cannabis into Bali. She was sentenced to 20 years by the Denpasar District Court.

On appeal Corby’s conviction and sentence were confirmed with finality by the Indonesian Supreme Court. In March 2010, Corby petitioned the President of Indonesia, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono for clemency on the grounds of mental illness. In May 2012, she was granted a five-year sentence reduction, reducing her senetence to 15 years.

Corby was released on parole on February 2014 after serving nine years in prison. Under her parole conditions, Corby was not be able to leave Indonesia until May 2017. When she was deported home she had served 12 years and eight months of her 15-year term, in jail and on parole.

Uproar in Australia Over the Schapelle Corby Case

Protests erupted in Australia after Corby’s 20-year prison sentence verdict was read. The Indonesian Embassy in Canberra was threatened with a biological warfare attack that turned out to be a hoax. The media reported that Corby’s plight now threatens relations between the Australia and Indonesia. [Source: Alan Sipress, Washington Post, June 4, 2005]

According to the Washington Post: Corby’s defense team told the court that unidentified baggage handlers had tucked the plastic, vacuum-sealed packet of marijuana into her luggage sometime during the trip from her home in Brisbane to Sydney. For some reason, her team said, the drug ring had not retrieved the package before she transferred to an international flight to Bali. Though no evidence was mustered in court supporting her account, a subsequent newspaper poll showed 90 percent of Australians believed her. "The judges don't even speak English, mate. They're straight out of the trees," one Australia man said. "I have total disrespect for our neighboring nation, my friend. Total disrespect."

Three Australian television stations broadcast the Corby verdict live. Signs went up along Australian roads and on car windows calling on vacationers to boycott Bali. Corby partisans urged Australia to dispatch special forces to free her and demanded the government take back the $750 million in aid pledged to Indonesia to help tsunami victims. “Citing this financial assistance, Australian actor Russell Crowe urged a local radio station, "How can we as a country stand by and let a young lady, as an Australian, rot away in a foreign prison?"

On the conditions that Corby endured at Kerobokan Prison in Bali, the Melbourne’s Herald Sun reported: "Human rights activists estimate that life expectancy in the badly overcrowded jail compound would be between 10 and 15 years. The toilets in the jail's squalid cells sit directly beside the benches where food is prepared. The jail was built in 1976 for 366 prisoners, but it holds 525. Corby shares her 5m-wide cell with seven other women. She is forced to wash with only a small bucket and ladle. The untreated water is fetched from a dilapidated well in the prison compound. Corby's family says the jail food is inedible. It comes around on a big cart — a bucket of rice which her family says regularly contains stones, dirt and sticks, and a pot of some kind of stew. The pot is encrusted with drying and rotting food." —

Bali Nine Member Said Corby Admitted Her Guilt

Renea Lawrence, the convicted drug smuggler and member of the Bali Nine, who lived in a Bali prison with Schapelle Corby, says Corby admitted her guilt and said the fateful 2004 drug run that saw her locked up was actually her fourth trip to Bali as a courier. Lawrence also alleged in an interview broadcast on the Ten Network that Corby faked mental illness to get a shorter sentence — a tactic that worked.[Source: Michael Bachelard, Sydney Morning Herald, April 7, 2014]

In the interview, Lawrence said in the five years she lived in the same cell block as Corby, she “did a good job on keeping secrets but she let one slip one night” to Lawrence and another prisoner. “She said that she knew the marijuana was in the body [sic] bag but that the person who was supposed to be at the airport at that time didn’t show up for work or couldn’t be there for some strange reason, I don’t know … And that’s how she got caught.

“She told me and the other prisoner that she done it more than this time. She got away with it before … and she said how she had to keep saying that she wasn’t guilty because if she changed her mind she was scared she would lose all the Australian support.” Elaborating on the earlier drug trips, Lawrence said: “She said she brought the drugs before, three times. The first time she didn’t know [about the drugs] until she got through the airport, but the other times she knew.”

“On the question of Corby’s mental illness, Lawrence said, “She, um, actually, she acted crazy … She said it herself. She played crazy so that she would get more sympathy and more time off from the President of Indonesia. Which actually worked for her … She would put on more of an act when someone important came into the block like the doctor of the jail boss.”

“Prison sources have in the past blamed Lawrence, who was responsible at one point for administering anti-psychotic medication to Corby, for getting the dosage wrong and prompting her mental illness. Lawrence, who had a sometimes antagonistic relationship with Corby, appears to be motivated partly by anger to give the interview. Lawrence, like other members of the Bali Nine, was infuriated by the Corby family’s inept handling of Schapelle’s release. This included initially living in a five-star luxury villa, arranging a lucrative paid interview with Willesee (which fell through over objections from the Indonesian government) and implying that Schapelle Corby may have been set up by Indonesian authorities.

Michelle Leslie Ecstasy Case

Michelle Leslie, an Australian model, was caught with two Ecstasy pills in Bali in August, 2005. She later pleaded guilty to possession, was sentenced to time served, and was released after being in prison for three months. The case became one of the most controversial drug incidents involving a foreigner in Bali. Facing the possibility of a 15-year prison sentence under Indonesia’s strict drug laws, Leslie and her team launched an extensive and costly effort—reportedly totaling about A$600,000—to secure her release. Investigations later suggested that much of her public defense was built on false claims and strategic deception designed to navigate the Indonesian legal system. [Source: Mark Forbes, The Age, November 26, 2005]

Leslie initially insisted she did not know the pills were in her bag, claiming they had been planted by a friend and were substitutes for prescription medication. However, interviews with police, associates, and sources close to her indicated that these claims were fabricated. Even her assertion that she had converted to Islam, which drew significant public attention when she appeared wearing a hijab, was widely questioned, with some suggesting it was a tactic to gain sympathy or avoid media scrutiny.

Her version of events was further challenged by Siti Nameera Azman, the friend she had blamed for placing the pills in her handbag. Azman stated that Leslie had actually intended to give the ecstasy to friends who later decided not to attend a party. She also said that others provided false statements to support Leslie’s story. Additional claims—such as drug tests being falsified or the pills belonging to associates of powerful individuals—were also found to be untrue or exaggerated.

Behind the scenes, large sums of money were used in attempts to influence the outcome of the case. Leslie’s boyfriend’s father, linked to a $220 million car dealership business, helped fund the effort. More than $100,000 in bribes was reportedly distributed through legal channels, including $20,000 sent to a police laboratory in an unsuccessful attempt to alter test results, and another $20,000 offered to a senior police official, who refused it. At one stage, authorities or intermediaries allegedly demanded up to $400,000 to reduce the charges, though the final amount paid was likely lower but still substantial.

The events surrounding her arrest also revealed a party environment involving around 20 people, where drugs such as ecstasy and cocaine were reportedly used. Leslie later admitted privately to having taken ecstasy that night, despite publicly denying it. The two pills found in her possession were said to have been intended for friends. After her arrest, she contacted a drug dealer for help, and money—about $20,000—was transferred to assist in arranging legal support and attempted bribes.

After nearly three months in detention, Leslie’s charges were reduced to a lesser offense of drug possession as a user. She was sentenced to three months in prison—the exact time she had already served—and was released and deported shortly after. Upon release, she apologized to Azman for falsely blaming her and sought support from friends to maintain her narrative. The case drew widespread criticism, with many arguing it exposed corruption, privilege, and manipulation within the justice process, all triggered by what one observer described as “just two pills.”

Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons

Text Sources:“Encyclopedia of World Cultures Volume 5: East/Southeast Asia:” edited by Paul Hockings, 1993; “Culture and Customs of Indonesia” by Jill Forshee, Greenwood Press, 2006; National Geographic, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Smithsonian magazine, Encyclopedia.com, Library of Congress, Indonesia Tourism website (indonesia.travel), Indonesia government websites, Live Science, The Conversation, The New Yorker, Time, BBC, CNN, Reuters, Associated Press, AFP, Lonely Planet Guides, Google AI, Wikipedia, The Guardian and various websites, books and other publications.

Last updated April 2026