Two Britons have been arrested on the island of Bali for allegedly trying to smuggle in 1.3kg of cocaine.
Kial Robinson, 29, and Piran Ezra Wilkinson, 48, both from Chichester, in West Sussex, are currently being held by Bali’s Narcotic Agency.
Robinson, who owns a landscape gardening business, according to documents filed to Companies House, was arrested after being stopped at Bali’s International Airport with allegedly a package containing cocaine found in his backpack.
The Daily Mail understands he boarded a Turkish Airlines flight from Barcelona and arrived on the island on September 3.
He claimed he was offered $10,000 to peddle the drugs and was told to give them to someone who would come to a villa in Mengwi, Badung, near Canggu, according to sources.
Wilkinson, who is listed on Companies House as a property manager, was arrested at a villa in the early hours of September 4.
On Monday there was no answer when The Daily Mail visited the £320,000 semi-detached house where Robinson’s gardening business is registered.
Convicted drug traffickers, especially those caught with large quantities, have in the past been executed by firing squad in Indonesia – including foreign nationals. If the quantity is large but not enough for the death penalty, life in prison is a common sentence.
The Agency’s spokesperson, Made Dwi Saputra, only confirmed that two British nationals had been arrested.
He said the arrest will officially be announced in a press conference on Tuesday.
‘On Tuesday, we will carry out a modest ceremony to destroy some narcotic evidence, as well as a press release on several cases,’ Made Dwi said.
A spokesperson for the Foreign Office told The Daily Mail: ‘We have been made aware of two British nationals who have been detained in Bali. We continue consular support for both and are in contact with the local authorities.’
In July, three Brits who had been warned they faced the death penalty for smuggling drugs into Bali hidden in Angel Delight packets were let off with just a one-year prison sentence.
The Indonesian court instead gave 12-month prison terms to the three British nationals, all from Hastings and St Leonards-on-Sea in East Sussex, who had been accused of drug running on the resort island.
Jonathan Christopher Collyer, 38, and Lisa Ellen Stocker, 39, were arrested on February 1 after being stopped at Bali’s international airport with 17 packages of cocaine that weighed nearly a kilogram, according to public court records.
They appeared in court alongside Phineas Ambrose Float, 31, who was allegedly due to receive the packages from them and was arrested a few days later in February.
The trio appeared in distinctive white and red prison uniforms before a panel of judges at Denpasar District Court.
Presiding judge Heriyanti declared that all three suspects had violated article 131 of Indonesian Narcotic law – but said he was reducing the sentence because they had admitted their offences and had behaved ‘politely’.
All three defendants stated that they accepted the verdict and would not file an appeal. The time served since their arrest in February will count towards their sentence, meaning they should be released early next year.
