05/15/25 06:07:00
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05/15 06:05 CDT An American basketball player arrested in Indonesia for alleged
drug smuggling
An American basketball player arrested in Indonesia for alleged drug smuggling
By NINIEK KARMINI
Associated Press
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) --- An American basketball player for the Indonesian
league was arrested for allegedly attempting to smuggle illegal drugs to the
country, police said Thursday.
The Southeast Asian country has extremely strict drug laws, and convicted
smugglers are sometimes executed by firing squad.
Jarred Dwayne Shaw, 34, from Dallas, Texas, was arrested May 7, after police
raided his apartment in Tangerang regency, just outside the capital, Jakarta,
and seized 132 pieces of cannabis candies, said Ronald Sipayung, the
Soekarno-Hatta Airport police chief.
The arrest followed a tip from the airport's customs that reported Shaw had
received a suspicious airway package from Thailand, Sipayung said. Cannabis has
been decriminalized in Thailand since November 2024. Under Indonesia's
anti-drug laws, Shaw faces up to life sentence or death penalty if found
guilty, Sipayung said.
A video circulating on social media purportedly showed Shaw, wearing a black
T-shirt and shorts, resisting as he's being pushed away by 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 police
during interrogation that he wanted to share the cannabis candy with fellow
basketball players, according to Sipayung.
He said the candy contained a total gross weight of 869 grams (30.6 ounces) of
illegal cannabinoid inside a package.
"We are still running the investigation to uncover the international drugs
network behind this case and to stop its distribution," Sipayung said.
Shaw did not make any statement when he was presented by the authorities at a
news conference Wednesday wearing a detainee orange T-shirt and a mask with his
hands tied.
Tangerang Hawks' manager, Tikky Suwantikno, told reporters on Thursday that
they regretted what had been done by Shaw and the club had immediately fired
him as he has breached the contract.
The Indonesian Basketball League banned Shaw from playing for life, said its
chair, Budisatrio Djiwandono.
"We don't tolerate players, administrators or anyone in the field involved in
drugs. There is no room for drug users in the basketball world," Djiwandono
said.
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime says Indonesia is a major
drug-smuggling hub despite having some of the strictest drug laws in the world,
in part because international drug syndicates target its young population.
About 530 people are on death row in Indonesia, mostly for drug-related crimes,
including 96 foreigners, the Ministry of Immigration and Corrections' data
showed. Indonesia's last executions, of an Indonesian and three foreigners,
were carried out in July 2016.
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