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ttempts to smuggle drugs into Kerobokan Penitentiary in Bali continued on Saturday when two children were caught trying to smuggle shabu-shabu (crystal methamphetamine) into the prison. The drugs were found in rice wrapped in paper.

Sixteen-year-old JM and 10-year-old A arrived at Kerobokan prison on Saturday at 11.45 a.m. to visit their brother Gesi, an inmate serving one year and three months behind bars for sexually abusing a child.

When the prison guard searched the children, he found the drugs. The police said the drugs weighed around 0.2 grams.

According to a prison guard, the two children regularly visited the prison to give food to their brother. JM is a student drop out-turned construction worker, while his brother, A, is a fourth grade elementary school student in Denpasar.

After finding the drugs, the prison guards called the police and officers brought the two children to North Kuta Police station, where the case was handed to the Badung Police for further investigation.

Badung Police drug section head Adj. Comr. Bambang Gede Artha said the police were still investigating the case. '€œWe have to find out who put the drugs in the rice,'€ Bambang said.

Police decided to release A, as they deemed him not involved in the incident. JM, however, was detained at the police station as he had brought the food.

'€œJM told the investigator that he did not know he was carrying drugs. He said he was only told to bring the food by his mother,'€ Bambang added.

Bambang said the police would interrogate the boys'€™ parents.

'€œWe think others may have told the boy what to do,'€ he said.

As JM is a child, the police will ask the Denpasar correctional board to accompany him during the legal process.

'€œWe will report to the correctional board on Monday, so the correctional board officer can accompany him,'€ he said.

Kerobokan prison warden Sudjonggo confirmed the drugs were detected when the children were searched.

'€œThe guard found the drug when searching the visitors and their belongings,'€ he said, adding that the X-ray machine owned by the prison had been damaged for years.

Sudjonggo admitted that attempts to smuggle drugs into the prison took various forms and guards should carefully check all goods brought onto the premises.

'€œWe'€™ve found drugs in sealed snack packages, sealed cigarette packs and many other things. They try to bring drugs into the prison,'€ he said.

On Dec. 30 last year, the Denpasar Police arrested a prison guard from Kerobokan Penitentiary, Juli Edi Syahputra, for allegedly selling drugs at a food stall in front of the prison. The man was caught with 12 packages of shabu-shabu weighing 24.94 grams, 15 ecstasy pills and 0.46 grams of heroin.

Later on Dec. 31, a prison guard caught an inmate named I Nyoman Wirya Dinata with four joints in his pocket. Wirya Dinata is serving 1 year and 8 months for drug-related offenses and is now facing an additional term.

In June last year, an attempt to smuggle 2.5 kilograms of marijuana into Kerobokan prison was thwarted. Prison officers arrested Juwarso, 26, when he attempted to take the marijuana into the prison. The marijuana was concealed under some vegetables and wrapped in a plastic bag.

Meanwhile, in July, a drug smuggling attempt in the correctional facility was foiled with the arrest of 27-year-old Vicky Alberto Delano, who tried to smuggle more than 2 grams of crystal meth into the prison.

Delano was caught when visiting a prisoner, carrying a plastic bag containing food and several packets of cigarettes. During a search, a prison guard found crystal meth inside a cigarette pack.