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Breaking news: 8 australians busted in bali for 10.9kg heroin

Nice Tits said:
^ made my previous comments not realising they were arrested in the airport with the stuff strapped to themselves...
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Morning news was saying that those in possession of the drugs were arrested and removed from the plane, while the rest were arrested at a hotel. Perhaps the Indonesians had to actually allow these guys to board the plane in order for them to be charged with some sort of trafficking?

What's hypocritical though is that the AFP will arrest and charge you with conspiracy if they believe you are planning a terrorist act, but in this case they knew at least 2 weeks ago that these people were conspiring to smuggle these drugs. The AFP and Indonesians could have arrested them back then with consiracy, but that wouldn't have made as big headlines. 8)
 
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dimmo said:
I am against the death penalty as well.

If I were arguing against the death penalty in the United States, such things as these could be brought up:
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  • and killing someone else is just wrong !!!
 
I doubt they're going to get the death penalty.

As for arresting them here or there, I have no problem with Australian authorities informing the Indonesian authorities about this sort of thing. You want the two countries' law enforcement arms to work together and that goes beyond drug trafficking (like on the issue of terrorism, which Indonesia has been very lax on in the past).
 
Some commentary/editorial from the Age about drugs and crime.

Today's editorial

Twin scourges: illicit drugs and greed
April 20, 2005

The terrible price of the illegal drug trade on human lives is played out in a variety of ways.

The arrest of nine Australians in Bali after a joint operation by Indonesian and Australian police sends a clear warning to Australians travelling overseas, especially to young people who think they might get away with importing even small amounts of illegal drugs. The quantity of heroin involved in the Bali operation is substantial. Five of the Australians were arrested at the airport, four of them allegedly acting as "mules", carrying drugs strapped to their bodies. A fifth person was taken from a Sydney-bound plane. Four others were arrested during a subsequent raid on the Hard Rock Hotel in Kuta. In their rooms police allegedly found a small quantity of heroin and scales. The nine - eight men and one woman - are aged between 18 and 29, variously from Brisbane, Sydney and provincial NSW. Some have protested their innocence. It is alleged that just over 11 kilograms of heroin is involved. The detainees faced further interrogation yesterday. If charged and found guilty on trafficking counts, the consequences will be appalling. They can expect to face the death penalty. That is the law in Indonesia.

Some of the people involved have been under observation by the Australian Federal Police since February following a tip-off that they planned to go to Indonesia and pick up a shipment of heroin coming from South-East Asia. Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said he was "shocked" by the arrests. Well he might be, given the backdrop of a high-profile drug case involving an Australian citizen currently before a Balinese court. The sheer scale of this new case has taken many by surprise. Justice Minister Chris Ellison yesterday suggested more arrests were possible.

Given that Indonesia has the death penalty, there has been some criticism of the Australian Federal Police for allowing the nine to be picked up in Bali rather than allowing them to travel to Australia before detaining them. But the reality of co-operation between international law enforcement agencies is that information is shared with the aim of apprehension when and where criminal acts are committed, not according to which forum is most favourable to the accused. The Australian Government is opposed to capital punishment, as is this newspaper. The Government as a matter of course - and with considerable vigour - always pleads for clemency in capital cases involving Australians overseas. It is right to do so. The death penalty still exists in 76 nations and was carried out in 25 of them last year.

Arguments about the nature of the arrests are mostly secondary to the terrible and immense toll in human suffering wrought by drug trafficking. In addition, the Government estimates that drug use and problems connected to it cost the Australian community $6 billion annually. Heroin is a lethal product. It extracts a dreadful price from those who use it. Those who choose to make money from its sale and distribution to vulnerable people must be aware of the risks they take.
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From The Age

Commentary, also in today's Age.

How the drug drought is helping to cut crime
By Ross Gittins
April 20, 2005

A fall in heroin use and better economic times are reducing crime rates.

The crime wave is receding. There's now no doubt about it. The tide turned in 2001 and there has been a general decline in crime each year since then. The fall is occurring in every state, but seems concentrated in the bigger cities.

If this comes as news to you, however, you could be forgiven. For the most part, it's not news the media have been trumpeting. Receding crime waves aren't good for business (the media's business, that is).

Victoria is playing its full part in the national decline, with the recorded crime figures for 2002 and 2003 showing clear progress. Figures for last year have yet to be released.

For a foretaste of the further decline they are likely to show, however, consider the latest figures from NSW, released this week.

They showed that, over the 24 months to last December, recorded crime fell in nine of the 16 major categories. All forms of burglary, almost all forms of robbery and theft of motor vehicles fell by between 5 and 24 per cent.

In the remaining seven categories - including murder and the various forms of assault - the level of crime was stable. So it's predominantly a fall in crime involving property.

Looking at a longer period from January 2001 to September 2004, the overall level of property crime in NSW fell by 46 per cent and is now below what it was in the mid-1990s.

Well, that's great news. But the obvious question is: why?

Researchers at the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics have conducted a study of the decline's causes. They focused on NSW figures, but most of the causes they identified would also apply nationwide.

The decline began after the onset of a significant fall in the availability of heroin in early 2001 and it seems this is a major part of the explanation. At that time, the effective price of heroin in Sydney roughly quadrupled, leading to a big fall in its consumption. Because the decline in crime began about the same time as the heroin drought, and because heroin users often resort to property crime to finance their purchases, it's reasonable to conclude that the fall in heroin consumption does a lot to explain the decline in crime.

The decline in crime began after a significant fall in the availability of heroin in early 2001."

But there has to be more to it, particularly because property crime rates continued falling long after heroin consumption had stabilised at a lower level.

One wrinkle is that there was actually a brief jump in the number of robberies immediately after the onset of the heroin shortage. And this spike coincided with a sharp rise in the percentage of suspected overdose fatalities in Sydney involving people who tested positive for cocaine.

Cocaine tends to be taken more frequently than heroin, making the habit much more expensive to maintain. And prolonged and frequent use of cocaine tends to make users more violent. But before long cocaine, too, became more costly and harder to get.

About a year after the heroin shortage began, the number of re-registrations for methadone treatment increased significantly. And research confirms that addicts offend at a lower rate when they're in methadone maintenance treatment.

Putting it all together, it seems that when the shortage of heroin made it more expensive, some users briefly turned to cocaine and undertook more robberies to cover its higher cost. When the price of cocaine also rose, some may have moved back on to methadone.

But what about the wider role of policing and the courts - do they get any credit? A little.

The study revealed no increase in the number of suspected offenders charged with robbery or burglary, but it did find an increase in the proportion of convicted burglars given a jail sentence. It also found that average jail sentences lengthened for both burglary and robbery. Statistical tests could not detect any benefit from the longer sentences for robbery, but they did find that greater rate of imprisonment for burglary offenders contributed to the decline in crime.

Note, however, that this may have been less a deterrent effect than an "incapacitation effect". That is, offenders were able to burgle fewer homes because they spent more time behind bars.

Of course, it costs the taxpayer a bundle to keep offenders locked up, so a separate question is whether dishing out more and longer sentences is a cost-effective way of controlling crime.

Finally, the strong growth in the economy seemed to help reduce crime. After allowing for all the other factors, tests showed contributions from the growth in real incomes and from the fall in long-term unemployment among younger males.

Not all property crime is drug-related. Many offenders become involved in crime simply because it provides a useful source of additional income. This is particularly true of burglary, which attracts a large number of casual opportunists. Studies show that young people from families of low socio-economic status tend to commit property crime at a higher rate during periods of unemployment than when they have jobs.

But to get back to drugs, it's worth noting that reducing the supply and increasing the cost of heroin is more likely to reduce crime when governments also ensure addicts are easily able to find a path out of drug use and into treatment.

Ross Gittins is a staff writer.
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From The Age
 
Wondering if this was mentioned anywhere else, in a Herald Sun article today. Looks like these guys were into the scene...

Their boss Richard Errington said he was "absolutely shocked" to learn of the arrests.

"They were nice, quiet, unassuming. They did their work, they worked hard," Mr Errington said.

A friend said: "They were into the party scene and would go out together after work.

"They sashayed in the nightclub community and worked in hospitality, so there was a certain culture.

"They took their pills every other weekend, but there was never any heroin. This has come from left field.

...

There were mixed reports of Andrew Chan by neighbours. Some said they suspected him of peddling drugs.

"Souped-up cars would pull up in the middle of the night and just stop outside the house and he'd come out and then they'd drive off," one said.

Another neighbour said people were aware of the possible illegal activity but chose to ignore it.

"You don't understand how many cars come here. Neighbours are aware of it," she said.
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From Herald Sun - Work hard and partied together
 
Don't 'dis' the Indonesian legal system, 'dis' our bloody system!

A matter of where life is cheaper
May 2, 2005

Before we morally condemn Indonesia's legal system, we should look at our own, writes Paul Sheehan.

Now that we're all watching Indonesian Roulette, the reality television show in which all of the participants face the prospect of death if they fail, the question has become: who is going to die?

Based on what we already know - the monumental transparency of guilt, the gravity of their stupidity, and the growing willingness of the Indonesian courts to sentence drug traffickers to death - it appears certain that two Australians are going to be given death sentences in Indonesia: Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan, the alleged ringleaders of the group of nine Australians caught smuggling large amounts of heroin from Bali last month. Their chances of avoiding being given the death penalty look close to zero.

If the executions are carried out, Sukumaran and Chan will be removed from their cells before dawn, taken to an isolated location and shot.

Would that be such a bad thing?

As usual with reality television, the lines between reality and artifice have been actively blurred. The usual suspects in TV have been busy paying relatives of alleged Australian drug smugglers to fly to Indonesia in exchange for access. In other words, cash for co-operation, however tacit. Plus the real possibility of death sentences or life sentences increasing the drama, bathos and thus ratings.

It would be a big social drama if any of the Bali nine are sentenced to death by an Indonesian court, and an even bigger drama if any executions are carried out.

As for the question of whether this would be such a bad thing, only a sanctimonious zealot would react viscerally and decisively with either yes or no.

Option A: No, their execution would be a bad thing. It would be an act of barbaric finality, especially as there is no evidence that the death penalty deters crime more effectively than other punishments.

Their deaths would be backdoor executions carried out with the Australian Government's complicity, even though the death penalty was eliminated in this country more than 30 years ago. The Australian Federal Police tipped off the Indonesian authorities when they could have arrested them all when they returned to Australia. In this case, the death penalty would come down hard, as usual, on the lower end of the supply chain while the fat cats remain free.

The drug dealer who probably supplied the heroin in this case, Man Singh Ghale, was shot and killed by police while in custody last Wednesday. This probably ended the chances of police going higher up the supply chain. Given that Indonesia is a country riddled with government and police corruption, his death was both suspicious and convenient.

Or Option B: Yes, their execution would be a good thing. Two malignant heroin traffickers went to Indonesia knowing that the death penalty applied in that country, and therefore accepted the risks. They threatened and abused the hapless "mules" who carried their heroin and thus put their lives at risk. They intended to profit richly from the misery of importing enough heroin to supply more than 400,000 doses onto the streets of Australia. And they intended to supply much more.

Their deaths would send a message to everyone involved in this ghastly trade. Two criminals would die, but more lives would be saved from ruin. Indonesian law and cultural practice are not something Australians can choose to ignore. And Australian law, in basically decriminalising heroin addiction, has sent mixed messages to the heroin market. The executions would send a shock wave through a failing status quo.

Those who think the answer is obviously yes, or no, clearly have no stomach for moral ambiguity and there has been plenty of that to go around in the wake of the actions of the idiots now packaged as the Bali nine. On Friday, in response to the moral debate unfolding in Australia, the Indonesian embassy in Canberra issued the following statement:

"On Sunday, April 17, 2005, the Indonesian police in Bali arrested nine Australians for their alleged involvement in drug smuggling. Drugs are a major problem in Indonesia and have caused severe destruction on Indonesians, especially the young generation. Hundreds of thousands of people have fallen victim to drug misuse. Therefore, the Indonesian Government has always enforced stern action against those involved in drug smuggling.

"Article 82 of Indonesia's Law No 22 of 1997 on drugs promulgates the death sentence on those involved in the horrendous crime of drug smuggling.

"The Indonesian Government always appreciates and needs the co-operation of friendly countries in the region to help combat international crime, including drug trafficking. This co-operation, which is ongoing, has been of considerable assistance to the Indonesian Government in combating illegal drugs in order to save the lives of tens of millions of Indonesia's young people, as well as those in the region."

According to Amnesty International, although there have been numerous statements by the Indonesian Government in support of the death penalty, executions are rare. Before the execution of two men for murder in May 2001, there had been none for six years. But the trend has been for increasing numbers of death sentences to be handed down for drug trafficking. There were 66 such prisoners in the system last year, mostly foreigners.

So the bark is worse than the bite. This will help the young Australian who sparked this whole debate, Schapelle Corby, who probably would be out of jail with no conviction against her name had she been prosecuted in an Australian court, where the onus lies with the prosecution to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt. The opposite applies in Indonesia. She, not the prosecution, thus has the burden of proving she had nothing to do with the large amount of drugs found in her luggage.

For reasons of political sensitivity, and because of gaps in the prosecution's case, and the sheer public weight of Corby's emotional distress and media profile, she appears safe from the worst but vulnerable to a conviction.

If the Indonesians decide to bring the hammer down on Corby, or to invoke the death penalty on any of the Bali nine, moral outrage will be abundant in Australia. It will be redundant, given that this is a country where life is cheap, according to the legal system. The latest figures available over a 10-year period show that in NSW the average sentence for murder is 151 months. Apart from heinous cases where a life sentence is imposed without parole, murderers are out of prison after an average of 10 years, with a life ahead of them, unlike their victims.

Again and again, the courts deliver justice of the kind given to the family of Kurt Smith, the 19-year-old who, while walking home in Penrith on New Year's Eve 2002, was set upon by at least five youths who kicked him to death, for no reason. All were charged and convicted of manslaughter. Yet they all basically walked with light sentences. The average sentence for manslaughter in NSW is 80 months. Smith got death at 19 and his family got a life sentence.

Ditto drug dealers. In Australia, drug dealers operate through a revolving door known as the court system. According to figures supplied in Crime and Justice Bulletin for the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research, the average sentence for drug trafficking in NSW is 39 months.

Which legal system, Indonesian or Australian, treats life more cheaply, or the ravages of heroin more seriously?

http://www.smh.com.au/news/Opinion/A-matter-of-where-life-is-cheaper/2005/05/01/1114886249637.html
 
WtF?
Does the writer of this drawl honestly believe that killing 9 young asutralians in the prime of their lives is going to stem the flow of drugs? Paul Sheehan I think you are a fuckwit. Killing these people will do absolutley nothing to the availabilty of heroin. If they are not going to import it then someone else will.
As long as there is demand there will be great profits to be gained from supplying that demand. And where there is profit there will be people looking to have a share of it.

The pigs in indonesia are probably involed in the drug trade anyway.
 
^^^^ Man i tend to agree, me like most or shall i say all, users in this website are all for drugs.......... but it fucken sucks that trafficking 8 kilo's of smack(needless too say it would be about 0.000000000000000000000001 percent of the smack in this world) could cost nine aussies, most of them kids, their lives....i enjoy drugs, but the potentional abuse and desecration(like the topic at hand) is sad..
 
Paul Sheehan usually comes out with half-resonable drivel.

Reporters are no different to most people in that they contiune to perputate the lie that safe and resonable use of anydrug (except for alcohol) is impossible and should never be considered or discussed.

Eitherway australian kids pushed to achieve wealth and excitment, will contiune to be drug mules for human predators, and will contiune to be arrested by police and politicans seeking to use them as poltical footballs, simply to justify their shameless grab for power.

the government could fix this problem within months by taking the bottom out of the black market and by taking over the distrubition and production of drugs such as heroin, cannabis (although private only growing could be a possiblity), MDMA, LSD, cocaine, and the plethora of research chemicals which are achieving similar prominance.

Profits could be plowed into treatment centres and social programs.
 
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^ I agree with this. I think the first government to control and distribute drugs instead of fighting against them will quickly become the richest, most powerful government in the world.


I can't wait to be president.
 
Thought I'd use this thread instead of starting a new one

Teen mule's ties to drug dealer
By Ricky Sutton
May 03, 2005

BALI Nine mule Matthew Norman is a friend of one of Sydney's most notorious drug dealers.

Norman, now 18, forged a friendship with ecstasy peddler Leif Ibrahim while they were students at Sydney's Quakers Hill high school.

Ibrahim, 18, sold the tablet that killed Seven Hills teenager Danielle Chalon. At his court case, Magistrate Jennifer Betts described drug dealers as "the scum of the Earth".

She caused a storm of protest by letting Ibrahim walk from court with a good behaviour bond.

Ibrahim was photographed outside court laughing with friends.

The friendship between Norman and Ibrahim was confirmed last night.

Daniel Bedford, a friend who knew Norman for eight years, said: "They went to school together and I met them together a few times.

"Leif was from a troubled background and got in with the wrong crowd. I don't know how often they met, but they were mates."

Lorraine Parker, the mother of Norman's ex-girlfriend, Jessi, confirmed the pair knew each other.

"They were friends from Quakers Hill high," she said.

Norman, who worked as a caterer at the SCG, is the only member of the Bali Nine not to have been visited in jail by his family.

His father Michael, who has said he cannot afford to go, was unavailable for comment last night.

An associate of Ibrahim yesterday tried to sell a picture of the pair together - with quotes from Ibrahim himself - demanding $1500.

In a string of messages over an hour, the man tried to secure a deal.

"Let's start at $1500. That gets you the photo and a couple of quotes from Leif," he wrote.

When The Daily Telegraph said it did not pay criminals, the mailer replied: "None will go to Leif."

Prison psychiatrists have said they fear for Norman's health as he cries himself to sleep at night "screaming for his mother".
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From News.com.au
 
Prison psychiatrists have said they fear for Norman's health as he cries himself to sleep at night "screaming for his mother".
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^^^
That, I have to say, is one of the saddest things I have ever read. I understand that what they did was wrong but I still can't help but feel sorry for them.
 
i meant that society thinks the only safe euphoric legal drug is alcohol and that anything else is just "bad"
 
No they did nothing wrong at all. They imported a drug that makes people feel good. Sure they may have done it for people who don't mind hurting other humans beings/entities in their bid to become all powerful & rich however these kids have done nothing wrong. They've faithfully followed human nature and and the intangible rules and contradictions we push on our children from day 1.

Its only a crime because society dictates it is but that doesn't make it morally wrong
 
Thing that shits me the most is that the Australian Police sold out their own country men.... That is the lowest thing they could have done. They should have collected them when they returned.
 
I agree that Chan and wots his face should be killed, but as for the *mules* no-way should they end up dead, imprisonment (5-10years) definately, but death... No way.

SpecTBK=D
 
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