Police Arrest Four More Drug Smuggling Suspects in Bali

 Bali police announced on Monday that they have arrested a total of five suspects they believe are part of an international drug smuggling syndicate. 

Police said they arrested Lindsay June Sandiford on May 19. Sandiford, a 56-year-old British lawyer, arrived from Bangkok, Thailand when she was detained at Ngurah Rai Airport with some $2.5 million worth of cocaine in her suitcase. 

The four additional suspects, who were arrested on Friday, were believed to be the recipients Sandiford’s shipment. 

“Cocaine could be sold for Rp 23.9 billion ($2.5 million), assuming the price per gram is Rp 5 million,” Made Wijaya, the head of the Ngurah Rai customs office said in a press conference on Monday. “If they passed through security, [the drugs] could be consumed by 14,337 people.”

The four other suspects include Rachel D, Julian AP, Paul B and Nanda Gophal — they were arrested after customs officers conducted a "controlled delivery" in cooperation with Bali police and the National Anti-Narcotics Agency (BNN). 

“It took eight days to reveal this case, and they are all members of very big international syndicate,” Wijaya said.

Sandiford is believed to be the only the courier; she was supposed to hand over the cocaine to Julian, the alleged boss of the syndicate.

Julian was arrested in Karangasem with 4.7 kilograms of cocaine in his car trunk. He eventually took the police to his villa, where they  arrested Rachel, who police say had 45 grams of cocaine in her possession. 

Police also arrested Gophal at Julian's villa, and said they eventually found 78 plastic bags containing 279.3 gram crystal methamphetamine in Gophal's villa in North Kuta.

Paul was arrested at a separate location in Karangasem, and police say they found 3.1 gram of hashish at his residence.  

The five suspects are charged with 2009 law on Narcotics, and may face the death penalty.  

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Four tons of marijuana found floating off Southern California coast

Four tons of marijuana in large bales were found bobbing off the Southern California coast, and authorities are still trying to determine where it came from. Harbor patrol agents began receiving tips about "suspicious bales" 13 miles offshore near Dana Point, in Orange County around noon on May 20, according to a report from CBS Los Angeles. The Coast Guard, Orange County Sheriff's Department and U.S. Border Patrol hauled in some 160 bales or 7,623 pounds of marijuana. Border Patrol agents said the bales had a street value of $3.6 million. So far, there have been no arrests, and there were no suspect vessels sighted near the area where the dumping occurred. Border Patrol spokesman Michael Jimenez called the incident unusual in the Orange County Register. Typically, bales are found in the water because suspects and boats fleeing from authorities are in a hurry to get rid of them.

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Four tons of marijuana found floating off Southern California coast

Four tons of marijuana in large bales were found bobbing off the Southern California coast, and authorities are still trying to determine where it came from. Harbor patrol agents began receiving tips about "suspicious bales" 13 miles offshore near Dana Point, in Orange County around noon on May 20, according to a report from CBS Los Angeles. The Coast Guard, Orange County Sheriff's Department and U.S. Border Patrol hauled in some 160 bales or 7,623 pounds of marijuana. Border Patrol agents said the bales had a street value of $3.6 million. So far, there have been no arrests, and there were no suspect vessels sighted near the area where the dumping occurred. Border Patrol spokesman Michael Jimenez called the incident unusual in the Orange County Register. Typically, bales are found in the water because suspects and boats fleeing from authorities are in a hurry to get rid of them.

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Customs Negligent in Monitoring Tanjung Priok, says Anti-Drugs Watchdog

Henry Yosodiningrat, chairman of the National Movement Against Drugs (Granat), says customs and excise officers are negligent when monitoring Tanjung Priok Port. The comments were made in regard to the smuggling of 351 kilograms of methamphetamine from China via Malaysia to Indonesia. “If methamphetamine can get out of the container port, then the supervision must be very low,” said Henry in Jakarta on Tuesday. Henry is concerned that the low supervision in ports could be taken advantage of by international drug networks to smuggle large quantities of narcotics into Indonesia. “The catch, 351 kilograms of it, may only just be 10 percent of the total amount of drugs smuggled to Indonesia,” Henry said.

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The Australian man facing the death penalty for trying to smuggle drugs into Bali says he was forced to do so.

 

Edward Myatt attends his trial at a court in Denpasar, Bali accused of carrying 1.1 kg of hashish and 7 grams of methamphetamine (FILE Getty Images)

 

Edward Myatt faced court for the first time on Wednesday since his arrest in February at Bali's Ngurah Rai Airport, where he was allegedly caught with 1.1kg of hashish and four grams of methamphetamines in plastic casings he'd swallowed.An Australian man accused of trying to import a large quantity of drugs into Bali in his stomach will claim he was forced into the high-risk mission, which could see him sentenced to death if found guilty.

The 54-year-old showed no emotion and said little as the indictment against him was read out in the Denpasar District Court.

He faces three charges, including trafficking and two counts of possession.

Myatt, from Ballarat, Victoria, but who has lived in England for several years, could be sentenced to death if convicted on the drug-trafficking charge.

The possession charges carry a maximum penalty of life in jail.

He was not required to enter a plea on Wednesday.

Authorities remain convinced he was part of an international drug-smuggling syndicate and may have successfully imported drugs into Bali in the past.

Myatt has allegedly told investigators he bought the drugs in Delhi from a man he knew as "Dr Steve" after travelling to India from Yorkshire, England, where he had been living.

He then allegedly separated the drugs into smaller quantities and wrapped them in 72 plastic casings at his hotel before swallowing them and travelling to Bali.

But his lawyer, Maya Arsanti, told AAP outside the court that he only made the trip under pressure from another man, identified as Roger, who he knew in India.

"Roger forced him to do this," Ms Arsanti she said after the hearing.

Ms Arsanti did not give any more details about the mysterious "Roger", but said the claim will form a major part of the defence's case.

She added that Myatt, a yoga instructor, was a long-term user of drugs.

If this is accepted by the prosecutors and judges, it could see him given a lighter sentence.

People caught with drugs in Indonesia are often treated more leniently by the courts if they can prove they have an addiction.

Bali's chief prosecutor, Gusti Gede Putu Atmaja, however, said he would explore the allegations from narcotics officers that Myatt's trip to Bali in February was not his first as a drug courier.

"That's what we want to find out. I hope not, for his sake," Mr Atmaja told AAP.

"We will find out if this is the first time or second time, or one of many."

Mr Atmaja added he was yet to form an opinion about what kind of sentence would be sought, but said that the evidence against Myatt was overwhelming.

"This is a strong case," he said.

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Drug cartels have increasingly been shipping cocaine by way of hard-to-detect semi-submersible vessels. And the next generation of narco subs may be even harder to spot.

After a two-year manhunt, the United States Drug Enforcement Agency last week arrested Colombian drug kingpin Javier Antonio Calle Serna, a senior leader of Los Rastrojos, one of the country’s most formidable drug-trafficking organizations. After being indicted last summer by the Eastern District of New York, Serna reportedly felt so squeezed by the agency and rival drug dealers that he began negotiating for his surrender.

His arrest is by all accounts good news, especially due to Los Rastrojos alleged connections to Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, Mexico’s most wanted man and perhaps the world’s most notorious drug lord. Yet Serna’s capture is also a reminder of one of the growing challenges in the seemingly never-ending war on drugs: combating narco subs. Serna headed an organization well known for its ability to rapidly build and use roughly 50-foot-long fiberglass vessels (PDF), which float just above the waterline, to surreptitiously smuggle drugs across the globe.

Despite concerted efforts by governments to patrol their coastlines, drug traffickers have shown a remarkable ability to adapt, according to experts such as Rear Adm. Joseph L. Nimmich, former commander of the U.S. Coast Guard’s Joint Interagency Task Force South. And over the past five years, drug-trafficking
organizations and terrorist groups have increasingly been moving massive amounts of narcotics by way of these vessels. Indeed, U.S. counter-drug officials have estimated that roughly 32 percent of all cocaine sent between Latin America and the United States is transported by way of narco sub.

Historically, each innovation in drug trafficking has come about when existing methods have reached a state of crisis. Early in the drug war, Colombian drug cartels preferred to move their product by small planes, which landed on secret air strips in Central America. American authorities eventually started tracking these planes and closing down the secret airports. During the Miami Vice era, drug traffickers used high-speed boats for transport, but again American authorities caught on. And so in the early ’90s, the narco sub was born.

Over the past few years, law-enforcement officials have received reports that terrorist organizations, such as the FARC in Colombia and the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka, have been constructing semi-submersible narco subs to fund their activities. So too have drug-trafficking organizations such as Mexico’s powerful Sinaloa Cartel. And though it hasn’t been reported that al Qaeda and Hizbullah have ever tried to rent space on a narco sub or build one themselves in an effort to move drugs, weapons, or terrorists, it’s not much of a stretch to imagine this development, especially considering the latter’s alleged links to drug traffickers in parts of Latin America.

Colombian soldiers guard a homemade submersible in a rural area of Timbiqui, department of Cauca, Colombia, on February 14, 2011. (Luis Robayo, AFP / Getty Images)

The reason these vessels are so successful, according to U.S. and Latin American law-enforcement officials, is that they’re difficult to capture. Their hulls are painted dark blue, making them nearly impossible to spot. Powered by ordinary diesel engines, they leave little wake and produce an extremely small radar signature. The DEA claims that roughly 10 percent of all narco subs leaving Latin America are caught, but the true number is probably much lower since crews often sink their craft if they fear they might be discovered.

During the 1990s, American drug-enforcement officials heard of narco subs operating in Central America. In fact, the subs earned the named Bigfoots because some considered them a myth. In 2006, that myth was shattered when U.S. authorities spotted and seized their first vessel. By 2008, they began spotting about 10 a month.

Analysts have estimated that drug-trafficking organizations manufacture more than 120 narco subs every year. The building process, they say, takes anywhere from three months to a year, and costs up to $2 million per sub. The price may be well worth it, though, as these Bigfoots reportedly move as much as 12 tons of cocaine per trip; cut and sold, that translates to up to $4 million.

In an interview with VICE’s VBS TV, former drug trafficker Miguel Angel Montoya said that most narco submarines are made in the BuenaventuraJungle, one of Colombia’s poorest regions and an area that is accessible only by boat. Under the cover of the jungle’s heavy foliage, traffickers are able to hide in plain sight from law enforcement as they carry out their nefarious activities. For access and protection, narco traffickers pay the FARC and other paramilitary groups undisclosed sums, according to Montoya. The traffickers then assign each sub a four-man crew and pay them roughly $40,000 total per voyage.

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US blacklists sons of Mexico drug lord Joaquin Guzman

The US treasury department has put two sons of Mexico's most wanted man Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman on its drugs kingpin blacklist. The move bars all people in the US from doing business with Ivan Archivaldo Guzman Salazar and Ovidio Guzman Lopez, and freezes any US assets they have. Joaquin Guzman, on the list since 2001, runs the powerful Sinaloa drug cartel. Mexico has seen an explosion of violence in recent years as gangs fight for control of trafficking routes. The US administration "will aggressively target those individuals who facilitate Chapo Guzman's drug trafficking operations, including family members," said Adam Szubin, director of the department's Office of Foreign Assets Control . "With the Mexican government, we are firm in our resolve to dismantle Chapo Guzman's drug trafficking organisation." Ovidio Guzman plays a significant role in his father's drug-trafficking activities, the treasury department said. Ivan Archivaldo Guzman was arrested in 2005 in Mexico on money-laundering charges but subsequently released. As well as the Guzman brothers, two other alleged key cartel members, Noel Salgueiro Nevarez and Ovidio Limon Sanchez, were listed under the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act. They were both arrested in Mexico in 2011 and are still in custody. Under the Kingpin Act, US firms, banks and individuals are prevented from doing business with them and any assets the men may have under US jurisdiction are frozen. More than 1,000 companies and individuals linked to 94 drug kingpins have been placed on the blacklist since 2000. Penalties for violating the act range include up to 30 years in prison and fines up to $10m (£6m). The US has offered a reward of up to $5m a for information leading to the arrest of Joaquin Guzman, who escaped from a Mexican prison in 2001.

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FBI offers up to $100,000 for info leading to capture of Eduardo Ravelo

Eduardo Ravelo, born on October 13, 1968 was added as the 493rd fugitive to the FBI 10 most wanted list on October 20, 2009. He is originally from Mexico, however he holds permanent residency status in the United States which gives him free movement across the border. An FBI informant and former lieutenant in the Barrio Azteca, a prison gang active in the U.S. and Mexico, testified that Ravelo told him to help find fellow gang members who had stolen from the cartel. In March 2008, he became the leader of the gang shortly after betraying his predecessor, stabbing him several times and shooting him in the neck. (Eduardo Ravelo: Wikipedia) Eduardo Ravelo was indicted in Texas in 2008 for his involvement in racketeering activities, conspiracy to launder monetary instruments, and conspiracy to possess heroin, cocaine and marijuana with the intent to distribute. His alleged criminal activities began in 2003. He is believed to be living in an area of Cuidad Juarez controlled by the Barrio Ravelo, with his wife and children just across the border from El Paso, Texas. He is also said to have bodyguards and armored vehicles to protect him from rival gangs as well as rival cartels.

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