Jakarta, Indonesia
AP
–
An American basketball player for the Indonesian League was arrested for allegedly tried to pass illegal drugs in the country, police said on Thursday.
The country of Southeast Asia has extremely strict drug laws and condemned smugglers are sometimes executed by a shooting team.
Jarred Dwayne Shaw, 34, of Dallas, Texas, was arrested on May 7, after the police went down to his apartment in Tangerang Regency, just outside the capital, Jakarta, and seized 132 pieces of cannabis candies, said Ronald Sipayung, the police chief of the soekarno-Hatta airport.
The arrest followed a tip in customs from the airport, which said Shaw had received a package of suspicious respiratory tract from Thailand, said Sipayung. Cannabis has been decriminalized in Thailand since November 2024. By virtue of anti-drug laws in Indonesia, Shaw is sentenced to perpetuity or death imprisonment if he was found guilty, said Sipayung.
A video circulating on social networks showed allegedly Shaw, carrying a black t-shirt and shorts, resistant while he is pushed by the police and shouting “Help … help!” When he was about to be arrested.
Shaw has played for several clubs in the Indonesian basketball league since 2022 and signed a contract with Tangerang Hawk last year. He told the police during the interrogation that he wanted to share cannabis candies with his colleagues basketball players, according to Sipayung.
He said that candies contained a total gross weight of 869 grams (30.6 ounces) of illegal cannabinoids inside a package.
“We are still carrying out the investigation to discover the international network of drugs behind this case and to stop its distribution,” said Sipayung.
Shaw made no statement when he was presented by the authorities at a press conference on Wednesday bearing an orange-held t-shirt and a mask with attached hands.
Tangerang Hawks manager Tikky Suwantikno told journalists on Thursday that they had regretted what had been done by Shaw and that the club had immediately dismissed him when he had broken the contract.
The Indonesian Basketball League prohibited Shaw from playing for life, said its chair, Bunisatrio Djiwandono.
“We do not tolerate players, administrators or anyone on the field involved in drugs. There is no room for drug consumers in the basketball world,” said Djiwandono.
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime claims that Indonesia is a major drug hubs despite some of the most strict drug laws in the world, partly because international drug unions target its young population.
About 530 people are in the death corridor in Indonesia, mainly for drug -related crimes, including 96 foreigners, showed data from the Ministry of Immigration and Correctional Services. The latest executions of Indonesia, an Indonesian and three foreigners, were carried out in July 2016.
