Three UK citizens may be sentenced to death by firing squad for purportedly bringing cocaine into Indonesia

Three British individuals could face the death penalty by a firing squad after being accused of smuggling approximately a kilogram of cocaine onto the Indonesian island of Bali.

The Associated Press stated that prosecutor I Made Dipa Umbara disclosed that Jonathan Christopher Collyer, 28, and Lisa Ellen Stocker, 29, were apprehended on February 1. They were stopped by customs officers at the X-ray machine due to suspicious items disguised as food packages found in their luggage.

Umbara informed the Denpasar District Court during a court session that a lab test confirmed the discovery of 10 pouches of “Angel Delight” powdered dessert mix in Collyer’s luggage. Additionally, seven similar pouches were found in Stocker’s suitcase, containing 993.56 grams of cocaine, valued at approximately 6 billion rupiah ($368,000).

Two days after Collyer and Stocker were arrested, police arrested 31-year-old Phineas Ambrose Float after a delivery sting set up by law enforcement that involved the other two suspects handing the drug to him in the parking lot of a hotel in Denpasar.

British nationals Lisa Stocker, left, Jonathan Collyer and Phineas Float at their trial hearing at Denpasar District Court in Denpasar, Bali.  (AP Photo/Firdia Lisnawati)

According to the Ministry of Immigration and Corrections, there are currently 530 people on death row in Indonesia, including 96 foreigners, mostly for drug-related crimes, the AP reported.

The last executions in Indonesia were of an Indonesian and three foreigners, which were carried out in July 2016.

Lindsay Sandiford, 69, from Great Britain, has been on death row in Indonesia for over a decade. 

Sandiford was arrested in 2012 after she was discovered to be in possession of more than eight pounds of cocaine in the lining of her luggage at Bali’s airport.

The highest court in Indonesia upheld the death sentence for Sandiford in 2013.

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.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.