Customs officials detained the woman, identified as Lindsay June Sandiford, 55, on May 19 with almost five kg (11lbs) of cocaine after arriving at the airport in Denpasar on a Thai Airways flight from Bangkok.
"We arrested the suspect after we found 4,791 grams of cocaine in her suitcase. She hid it in the lining of her suitcase," said Denpasar airport customs chief I Made Wijaya told reporters.
"We conducted an X-ray scan on the luggage, found a suspicious substance in it and then examined it," he said.
The cocaine has a street value of more than £1.6 million and Sandiford, who told officials she is a housewife, faces the death penalty for drug trafficking, Mr Wijaya said.
Indonesia enforces stiff penalties including life imprisonment and death for drug trafficking.
Two members of an Australian drug smuggling gang known as the "Bali Nine" who were arrested in 2005 are on death row, while seven others face lengthy jail terms.
Another Australian, Schapelle Corby, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison for smuggling 4.1 kg of marijuana in 2005, recently had her term
slashed by five years after a clemency appeal to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.
The 34-year-old is due to be released in September 2017.
May 28 UPDATE
Four Britons could face death penalty after arrest in Bali drug 'sting'
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| Kerobokan prison |
Four Britons and an Indian citizen have been arrested on the resort island of Bali for drug smuggling, police said on Monday, and could face death by firing squad under Indonesia's stiff anti-drug laws.
Police named Briton Lindsay June Sandiford, 55, from London, who was arrested on May 19 with almost 5kg (11lb) of cocaine at the airport in Denpasar, arriving on a Thai Airways flight from Bangkok. The cocaine has an estimated street value of £1.6 million.
Four others connected to Sandiford were arrested in a sting operation at an unspecified point in the following days, Bali police narcotics head Mulyadi told reporters.
"For over a week, we conducted a controlled drug delivery through the suspect, Sandiford, to uncover a drug ring," Mulyadi said. LIke many Indonesians, he uses only one name.
"Four Britons, including Sandiford, and one Indian citizen were arrested," he said, without naming the other suspects.
The police monitored Sandiford for over a week as she stayed in a hotel in Ahmed, on the eastern part of the holiday island, on the orders of another British woman who was also later arrested, he said.
The suspects are still being held at Denpasar police headquarters but if charged will be serving long sentences in Bali’s famous Kerobokan prison, home to Australian beauty therapist Schapelle Corby and at one time, celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay’s brother, Ronald.
It is likely the death penalty will be sought in the case of such a large amount of prohibited drugs.
Source:
The Telegraph, May 28, 2012
