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Police capture Australian fugitive
Bali Police have arrested a man the Australian Federal Police (AFP) have been hunting since 2008 for alleged drug trafficking
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Bali Police have arrested a man the Australian Federal Police (AFP) have been hunting since 2008 for alleged drug trafficking.
Bali Police chief Insp. Gen. Sutisna announced the arrest on Monday.
The police began searching for 44-year-old Timothy Geoffrey Lee, after receiving Red Notice from the AFP in early November last year.
In the letter, the AFP asked the Indonesia National Police to arrest Lee and extradite him. Detecting Lee’s whereabouts, the federal police discovered the suspect had left for Bali and was residing on the resort island, but still frequently returned to Australia.
“We request that Lee be listed on immigration alert to prevent him fleeing from Indonesia.
Immediately after the Indonesian National Police find Lee, he should be arrested and returned to New South Wales, where he will be tried for allegedly supplying commercial quantities of a prohibited drug and money laundering,” the federal police wrote in the letter.
The letter also stated that Lee, born in West Yorkshire in the UK on June 9, 1965, holds both Australian and British passports.
Bali Police chief Insp. Gen. Sutisna said Lee was arrested last Saturday in Banjar Tegal Gundul, North Kuta.
The police also confiscated some documents belonging to the suspect, including an Australian passport, three passports issued by the UK, a KITAS (temporary stay permit), an NPWP document (taxpayer registration number) and a foreigner supervision book. “Lee has been a fugitive in Australia since 2008. He frequently made the Australia-Bali round trip,” Sutisna said.
Currently, Lee is being questioned at the Bali Police headquarters.
Sutisna previously said the Bali Police would immediately arrange Lee’s extradition to New South Wales with the AFP, but later confirmed that Lee would first stand trial here for violating the extradition law.
“The suspect should be tried here first because he violated the extradition law. It will take time before the suspect is extradited. He will only be sent back after the court makes its ruling,” Bali Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Gde Sugianyar said on Tuesday.
However, Lee’s lawyer Erwin Siregar said the suspect should be extradited right away because he had not committed any offense in Indonesia. “My client has not committed any crimes in Indonesia, thus he could be extradited without being tried here,” he said.
Head of the Bali Police’s Drugs and Narcotics Department Sr. Comr. Kokot Indarto said the suspect had violated the 1985 Drug Misuse and Trafficking Law as he had brought a large quantity of crystal methamphetamine and the proceeds of allegedly laundered money.
“He is allegedly involved in an Australian drug ring because he trafficked a significant amount of a prohibited drug,” Kokot said.
The AFP noted in its letter that Lee left Melbourne for Bali in July 2006. In the same month, the federal police seized 1 kilogram of cocaine, 44 kilograms of MDMA in tablet and powder form, 45 liters of MDMA oil, as well as equipment used in the process of salting out MDMA oil and pressing powder into tablets.
The federal police said it had yet to reveal Lee’s activities in Indonesia, but identified that Lee had contacted someone in Australia through email in October 2008. The investigation revealed that on Oct. 17, Lee opened an email using an Internet protocol address accessed in Jakarta. On Oct. 18, the fugitive opened another email in Denpasar.
After tracing the Internet protocol address, the police found that it belonged to a restaurant in Seminyak, Kuta.
The AFP believe that Lee is a drug user, who manages a tourism-related business around Kuta or Legian. “He might be someone dangerous and he might possess a weapon.”
The Australian police also checked Lee’s passports and discovered the fugitive submitted an application to renew his passport using the address of Tony’s Villa in Seminyak. After the passport was issued, it was sent to the Krakatau Business Center in Seminyak upon Lee’s request.
