BATAM, Indonesia: An Indonesian court on Friday (March 6) sentenced one Thai national to life in prison and another to 17 years for smuggling nearly two tonnes of methamphetamine, in one of the country's biggest drug busts in years.
Weerapat Phongwan was sentenced to life in prison for acting as an intermediary and overseeing drug distribution, a judge said.
Teerapong Lekpradub got 17 years in jail after being found guilty of acting as an intermediary in the sale and purchase of the drugs, the judge said.
Both defendants and four Indonesians were arrested by Indonesian police in May last year after the fishing boat they were aboard was found to be carrying 67 boxes of methamphetamine, weighing nearly two tonnes, court documents showed.
The drugs were wrapped in tea bags, footage of a police expose showed.
They were arrested in the waters of Karimun, Riau Islands province, near Singapore.
The same court on Thursday sentenced another defendant Fandi Ramadhan to five years in jail.
The court will issue a verdict for the other three defendants next week.
The case went viral on social media after Ramadhan's family asked President Prabowo Subianto to intervene and free him.
The drugs were smuggled from Phuket, Thailand and believed to be sourced from an international network operating in Thailand, Myanmar and Laos, local media reported.
Indonesia has strict drug laws and in 2015 it executed two Australians in the Bali Nine drug ring for attempting to smuggle heroin out of the resort island of Bali. - Reuters
