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Coconuts Bali Jan. 24, 2018
Bali is a favorite destination for not only international tourists, but also international fugitives on the run, say police.
The statement was made by Supt. Sugeng Sudarso, deputy director of Bali Police’s Criminal Investigation Unit, after two foreign fugitives, from two different countries and unrelated cases, were found hiding out in Bali this month.
“Because it’s not possible to close Bali, it’s a tourist area and hideout for criminals from abroad. This is evidenced, by the data we’ve shared,” Sudarso said, as quoted by Tribun Bali.
The first foreign fugitive, Romanian man Balmus Petru was reportedly secured at Bali’s Ngurah Rai Airport on Jan. 17, after he was flagged by Interpol for being wanted back in Moldova on involvement in a fraud case.
Secondly, Chinese national Xiao Xiaofei was arrested just on Jan. 21 in Kuta, also wanted on fraud, but in his own country.
The two foreign fugitives are being temporarily detained but will eventually be deported, says Sudarso.
“Therefore, we must always coordinate with Immigration, hotels, and hotel associations to better register guests coming to Bali,” he said.
While Sudarso’s statement may sound a bit dramatic if just looking at these two cases, over the past several years police have taken down a number of foreigners involved in cyber crimes, most recently a huge raid that saw the arrest of over 40 Chinese nationals for allegedly running a cyber fraud operation out of Bali.
At least most of these “foreign criminals hiding out in Bali” just seem to be wanted back home for white collar stuff.
Contrarily, Indonesian Immigration had been previously concerned about the amount of Australian sex offenders flocking to Bali on holiday, especially after the 2016 conviction of an elderly Aussie who was found guilty of molesting over 10 young girls, but thankfully Australia has tightened things up on their end by disallowing child sex offenders from leaving the country without approval from law enforcement agencies.
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za 27 jan 2018 - 4:50