An American basketball participant for the Indonesian league was arrested for allegedly making an attempt to smuggle unlawful medicine to the nation, police mentioned Thursday.
The Southeast Asian nation has extraordinarily strict drug legal guidelines, and convicted smugglers are typically executed by firing squad.
Jarred Dwayne Shaw, 34, from Dallas was arrested Might 7, after police raided his condo in Tangerang regency, simply exterior the capital, Jakarta, and seized 132 items of hashish candies, mentioned Ronald Sipayung, the Soekarno-Hatta Airport police chief.
The arrest adopted a tip from the airport’s customs that reported Shaw had acquired a suspicious airway bundle from Thailand, Sipayung mentioned. Hashish has been decriminalized in Thailand since November 2024. Beneath Indonesia’s anti-drug legal guidelines, Shaw faces as much as life sentence or demise penalty if discovered responsible, Sipayung mentioned.
A video circulating on social media purportedly confirmed Shaw, carrying a black T-shirt and shorts, resisting as he is being pushed away by police and shouting “Assist … assist!” when he was about to be arrested.
Shaw has performed for a number of golf equipment within the Indonesian Basketball League since 2022, and signed a contract with Tangerang Hawk final yr. He informed police throughout interrogation that he needed to share the hashish sweet with fellow basketball gamers, in accordance with Sipayung.
He mentioned the sweet contained a complete gross weight of 869 grams (30.6 ounces) of unlawful cannabinoid inside a bundle.
“We’re nonetheless working the investigation to uncover the worldwide medicine community behind this case and to cease its distribution,” Sipayung mentioned.
Shaw didn’t make any assertion when he was offered by the authorities at a information convention Wednesday carrying a detainee orange T-shirt and a masks along with his arms tied.
Tangerang Hawks’ supervisor, Tikky Suwantikno, informed reporters on Thursday that they regretted what had been achieved by Shaw and the membership had instantly fired him as he has breached the contract.
The Indonesian Basketball League banned Shaw from enjoying for all times, mentioned its chair, Budisatrio Djiwandono.
“We don’t tolerate gamers, directors or anybody within the discipline concerned in medicine. There is no such thing as a room for drug customers within the basketball world,” Djiwandono mentioned.
The United Nations Workplace on Medicine and Crime says Indonesia is a serious drug-smuggling hub regardless of having among the strictest drug legal guidelines on the earth, partially as a result of worldwide drug syndicates goal its younger inhabitants.
About 530 persons are on demise row in Indonesia, largely for drug-related crimes, together with 96 foreigners, the Ministry of Immigration and Corrections’ knowledge confirmed. Indonesia’s final executions, of an Indonesian and three foreigners, have been carried out in July 2016.
