An Australian man has set off a global search in coordination with Interpol after being caught with $5 million dollars of drugs in his villa in Kuta, Bali.

The man who is being referenced only as “Mr A” by police was sprung with 5kg of ice, 32kg of cocaine, 800 ecstasy pills and 2.6kg of marijuana when Indonesia police raided his villa on April 12th, 2022.

Mr A quickly fled the villa, and three assumed accomplices, who are Indonesian nationals, were arrested at the villa. The arrested men told authorities that they were working under orders of the Australian man. Indonesia holds some of the harshest drug laws in the world, and carriers of large quantities of illegal narcotics risk death by firing squad.

Indonesian authorities have since announced that they are working with the worldwide police organisation Interpol to find the Australian perpetrator.

“The hunt was carried out after the arrest of three Indonesian citizens with the initials AAP, KMS and KS in one of the villas in Kuta on April 12, 2022,” Bali police director of drug investigations Kombes Pol Mochamad Khozin told reporters.

“We have coordinated with Interpol to find this ­perpetrator.”

During the briefing, Detective Khozen allegedly claimed police ‘knew’ who ‘Mr A’ was, saying the ‘A’ in the fugitive’s name was his initial and that he was ‘approximately 32 years old’.

Love Travel?

Get the latest Travel news, features, updates and giveaways straight to your inbox Learn more

Schapelle Corby was famously sentenced to 20 years in Balinese jail Kerobokan after being convicted of smuggling Marijuana into the holiday island back in 2005. The Australian woman served nine years before being released on parole.

In 2016, Australian’s Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran who were considered ring leaders of ‘The Bali 9’ were executed by firing squad for their part in a heroin smuggling operation from Indonesia into Australia.

Indonesia only opened their borders to tourists for quarantine-free travel in March for the first time since the pandemic.

For more on this topic, follow the Travel Observer.

Get unlimited access to the coverage that shapes our culture.
to Rolling Stone magazine
to Rolling Stone magazine