“Angel Delight” drug smugglers are days away from breaking out of hellhole Bali prisons.
Lisa Stocker, 39; her partner, John Collier, 39; and partner, Phineas Flot, 31, feared they could be hanged under Indonesia’s strict anti-drug laws but are now due to be released within days.
Drugs boss Brit Lisa Stocker and her associates are to be deported from Bali just days after being spared the firing squad for a £300,000 cocaine smuggling plot.
Mother-of-three Stocker, 39, her partner John Collier, 39, and partner Phineas Float, 31, fear they could be executed under Indonesia’s strict anti-drug laws when they are sentenced in August.
They were caught trying to smuggle 992 grams of cocaine, hidden in 17 packets of Angel Delight sweets, to Paradise Island.
But a judge at the Denpasar Central Court decided not to impose the death penalty after he admitted to drug trafficking to the island.
Instead, they were kept in hellish prisons for a year before being deported from the country. This means, given time, all three will be back in the UK next month.
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A trio of Britons saved from death penalty and will be deported to UK within days (Image: AFP via Getty Images)
A source said, “Those three can count themselves very lucky. Others have spent years behind bars for similar crimes – some even said they were going to be hanged.”
The court heard that Float had agreed to take part in the conspiracy for a “reward” of 500,000 Indonesian rupiah – the equivalent of just £22.50.
Prosecutor Med Umbara had urged Judge Herianti not to impose the death penalty, despite Indonesia’s famously strict anti-drug laws.
Drug trafficking has drawn criticism around the world.
It is a dramatic display of tolerance from Indonesian authorities, whose tough stance on drug trafficking has drawn criticism around the world.
The mules, all from East Sussex, pleaded guilty to trafficking charges.
Prosecutors sought a one-year sentence for the three Britons, a major relief in a country with some of the toughest drug laws in the world. (Image: AFP via Getty Images)
On February 1, a routine X-ray of their luggage revealed suspicious packages, leading to the arrest of Stocker and Collier at Bali’s international airport.
He had travelled from the UK to Bali via Qatar. The couple told police they did not know the packages contained drugs and believed they were giving the British delicacies to a friend.
After their arrest, Stocker and Collier became informants for the Indonesian police and agreed to lure their partner into the ambush.
Floate was arrested on February 3 when he arrived at the Grand Mass Airport Hotel car park to collect his luggage.
Lisa Stocker and Jonathan Collier were busted trying to bring 992 grams of cocaine hidden in 17 packets of Angel Delight sweets to Paradise Island. (Image: AFP via Getty Images) )
His release and deportation come just weeks after British drug lord Lindsay Sandiford, 69, was freed after 13 years on death row.
The legal secretary spent more than a decade in Bali’s notorious Kerobokan prison after being caught with £1.6 million worth of cocaine in 2012.
But Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper struck a bilateral deal with Indonesian authorities to secure his release in October.
Sandiford was repatriated along with fellow British citizen Shahab Shahabadi, 35, who has been serving a life sentence since 2014 after being arrested during an investigation into an international drug trafficking network.
British death row inmate Lindsay Sandiford was photographed before being repatriated under an agreement between Indonesia and Britain (Image: Coordinating Minister of Indonesia)
Officials say both Britons have suffered serious health difficulties. The Foreign Office has refused to say whether Sandiford will be detained or immediately released because he is at home.
But Indonesian authorities claimed he would be sent to jail after being sent back to Britain.
As part of the deal, his “custody will be transferred to the United Kingdom”, an official said, revealing that he would still spend some time behind bars.
