Indonesia arrests and sentences foreign nationals in separate cases of drug smuggling

An Indonesian Narcotics Agency officer escorts a Brazilian national identified as YB, center, and South African national identified as LN, right, who were arrested on accusation of smuggling cocaine into the resort island of Bali, during a press conference in Denpasar, Indonesia, Thursday, July 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Firdia Lisnawati)

DENPASAR, Indonesia — Indonesian authorities said they recently arrested a Brazilian man and a South African woman accused of smuggling cocaine, while a court sentenced two groups of foreigners to prison on drug charges.

The sentences were considered lenient as Indonesia typically hands out severe punishments for drug smuggling, including the death penalty.

A 25-year-old Brazilian man, identified by the initials YB, was arrested July 13 shortly after arriving from Dubai and charged with carrying 3,086 grams (6.8 pounds) of cocaine in his suitcase and backpack at Bali’s Ngurah Rai international airport, said Made Sinar Subawa, head of the Eradication Division at Bali’s Narcotic Agency.

The same day, customs officers seized 990 grams (2.1 pounds) of cocaine they say was being carried in the underwear of a 32-year-old South African woman, identified as LN, Subawa said.

In Denpasar District Court on Thursday, judges sentenced a group of three British nationals to one year in jail for drug offenses after a charge that could carry the death penalty was dropped.

Jonathan Christopher Collyer, 28, and his partner Lisa Ellen Stocker, 29, were arrested Feb. 1 after customs officers found 993 grams (2.2 pounds) of cocaine worth an estimated 6 billion rupiah ($368,000). The drugs were hidden among sachets of powdered dessert mix.

Two days later, authorities arrested Phineas Ambrose Float, 31, after a delivery of the drugs arranged by police.

During their June trial, defense lawyers argued their clients were unaware the food given to them in England contained cocaine. The three-judge panel handed down one-year prison terms for each defendant minus time served, making them eligible for release in seven months.

Separately, an Argentine woman was sentenced to seven years and a British man received a five-year sentence with a fine of 1 billion rupiah ($61,380) on charges of smuggling cocaine to Bali.

Eleonora Gracia, 46, was arrested in March at Bali’s airport with 244 grams (0.5 pounds) of cocaine. Authorities alleged she handed over the cocaine to Elliot James Shaw, 50, during a police sting operation at a Bali hotel.

About 530 people are on death row in Indonesia, mostly for drug-related crimes, including 96 foreigners, according to Ministry of Immigration and Corrections data. Indonesia’s last executions of a citizen and three foreigners were carried out in July 2016. The country has upheld a moratorium on execution since 2017.

President Prabowo Subianto has moved to repatriate several high-profile foreign inmates, all sentenced to death or life in prison for drug offenses, back to their home countries since he took office in October.

A British woman, Lindsay Sandiford, now 69, has been on death row in Indonesia for more than a decade. She was arrested in 2012 with 3.8 kilograms (8.4 pounds) of cocaine in her luggage.

Serge Atlaoui, an ailing Frenchman, returned to France in February after Jakarta and Paris agreed to repatriate him on “humanitarian grounds.”

Indonesia took Mary Jane Veloso off death row and returned her to the Philippines in December. In the same month, the government sent to Australia the five remaining members of a drug ring known as the “Bali Nine.”

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Niniek Karmini And Firdia Lisnawati, The Associated Press

Karmini reported from Jakarta, Indonesia.