The 32-year-old, identified by his initials as NPJ, had reportedly hidden the drugs in the pocket of his fitness shorts.
In a statement released on Monday, chief of the Badung District Police, Adjunct Senior Commissioner M. Arif Batubara, said that NPJ has been charged under Article 112 (1) of Law Number 35 of 2009 on Narcotics, which carries a maximum prison sentence of 20 years.
“During police questioning, NPJ confessed that he had ordered the cocaine from an unknown person on Monday, June 9, 2025, around Ungasan neighborhood, Jimbaran,” he added.
Batubara said that the suspect may have purchased the drugs for personal consumption.
Meanwhile, the chief of Badung Police’s Narcotics Division, Adjunct Commissioner Nyoman Sudarma, said that NPJ was arrested after his motorbike was stopped during a routine traffic check.
The cops stopped him at Tuyung Tutul intersection of Pererenan Road, Mengwi sub-district, around 6 p.m. local time on June 9 for not wearing a helmet. He was accompanied by an American woman.
Noticing NPJ’s nervousness, a traffic police officer carried out a body check and discovered a small plastic bag containing white powder in the left pocket of his shorts, Sudarma informed.
The white powder was later confirmed to be cocaine, he added.
The American woman, whose acquaintance NPJ had made at a beach in Badung district the same afternoon, was freed because she had nothing to do with the drug case, Sudarma said.
As reported earlier, the National Narcotics Agency (BNN) has said that the illicit drugs traded in the resort island of Bali are dominated by narcotics originating from transnational Golden Triangle rings.
The Golden Triangle is an opium-producing area in Southeast Asia, which comprises Myanmar, Thailand, and Laos.
According to the BNN, the drugs circulating in Bali are dominated by those emerging from the Golden Triangle ring, as revealed by laboratory tests and seizures that have confirmed the similarities in their chemical routes and narcotic signatures.
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Translator: Rolandus N, Rahmad Nasution
Editor: Arie Novarina
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