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Agence France-Presse

Two British men have been arrested on suspicion of smuggling over a kilogram of cocaine onto the Indonesian resort island of Bali, an official said on Tuesday, potentially exposing them to some of the world’s toughest drug laws.
Indonesia commonly sentences drug traffickers to death, although the country has not carried out such a sentence for nearly a decade.
Rudy Ahmad Sudrajat, the head of the Bali Narcotics Agency, said an airport security officer intercepted one of the men, a 29-year-old identified by his initials K.G., during a security check last Wednesday.
An X-ray check subsequently found around 1.3kg (2.9lbs) of cocaine in his bag, he told a press conference.
Rudy said K.G. had been “asked by someone named Santos to carry the bag … from Barcelona to Bali”, and deliver it to another British man there.

Police arrested the second man, another Briton identified as P.E., at a villa in Bali’s Badung district on Thursday.
Rudy said the pair were friends who lived in Thailand and had met in Barcelona a week before their arrests, adding that there was “a possibility they are part of a cartel”.
The Daily Mail identified the men as Kial Robinson and Piran Ezra Wilkinson, 48, both from Chichester, in West Sussex.
Robinson boarded a Turkish Airlines flight from Barcelona and arrived on the island on Wednesday, according to the Daily Mail exclusive. He claimed he was offered US$10,000 to smuggle the drugs into Bali, the British newspaper report, citing sources.
Dozens of foreigners, including a cocaine-smuggling British grandmother, are on death row in Indonesia for drug offences.
Indonesia last carried out executions in 2016, killing one of its own citizens and three Nigerian drug convicts by firing squad.
Additional reporting by SCMP’s Asia desk


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British duo arrested in Bali cocaine smuggling case, raising fears of cartel ties

British nationals Kial Robinson and Piran Ezra Wilkinson at the Bali’s National Narcotics Agency office in Denpasar on Tuesday. Photo: EPA

Kial Robinson (left) and Piran Ezra Wilkinson are escorted into a press conference in Denpasar, Bali, on Tuesday. Photo: EPA

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Tourists spend time at Kuta beach in Bali, Indonesia, on Tuesday. Photo: EPA

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Indonesian police officers escort Australian M.C., one of the suspects in the fatal shooting of an Australian tourist, ahead of a press conference at the local police precinct in Badung, Bali, Indonesia on Thursday, June 26, 2025. Photo: AP

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Asia

Southeast Asia

Indonesian police said one of the men was arrested at the island’s airport with around 1.3kg of cocaine in his bag


Indonesian police said one of the men was arrested at the island’s airport with around 1.3kg of cocaine in his bag.


British duo arrested in Bali cocaine smuggling case, raising fears of cartel ties

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Indonesian police said one of the men was arrested at the island’s airport with around 1.3kg of cocaine in his bag

Indonesian police said one of the men was arrested at the island’s airport with around 1.3kg of cocaine in his bag