A drug smuggler from suburbia, the ¿King and Queen of Bali¿ and their plot to ... - Daily Mail

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A drug smuggler from suburbia, the ¿King and Queen of Bali¿ and their plot to ... - Daily Mail

  • Lindsay Sandiford, 56, was caught flying into island from Bangkok with 5kg of drugs on May 17 last year
  • She told police Rachel Dougall, 39, boyfriend Julian Ponder, 43, and Paul Beales, 39 were the ringleaders and she was the mule
  • Dougall was given a one year jail term last month and Beales handed four years
  • Ponder could be given the death penalty tomorrow
By Martin Robinson
PUBLISHED: 10:41 EST, 22 January 2013 | UPDATED: 10:47 EST, 22 January 2013
It was a £1.6million cocaine racket hatched by a 'gang of four' Britons that has left at least one of them facing death by firing squad in Bali.
But the plot started in the Thai capital Bangkok on May 17 last year, when Gloucestershire grandmother Lindsay Sandiford, 56, allegedly met two members of the syndicate and took a suitcase crammed with 5kg of drugs.
Two days later she was intercepted at Denpasar airport, the main airport on the Indonesian island, where customs officials X-rayed the suitcase, found the cocaine and arrested her.
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Unmasked: Briton Lindsay Sandiford covers her face days after customs officials found her carrying 5kg or cocaine and then showed the haul to the press

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Sentence: Today the grandmother was put on death row and another member of the gang she helped police catch could receive the same tomorrow

It was over £1 bowl of chilli fried rice eaten by Mrs Sandiford, as she was told she would be executed if convicted, that police convinced her to expose the British drug-smuggling gang.
She immediately confessed that she had been told to hand over the drugs to Brighton antiques restorer Julian Ponder, 43, and his 39-year-old partner Rachel Dougall.
The couple were known as the ‘King and Queen’ of Bali as they managed to afford the £1,000-a-week rent on their palatial villa without seemingly working.
Another Briton Paul Beales, 39, was also implicated by Sandiford, who was accused by her of putting the cocaine in her luggage and being 'the muscle' of the group.

Police then set up a sting operation, and followed the grandmother as she went about contacting Miss Dougall, Mr Ponder, and Mr Beales.

But the case against Miss Dougall and Mr Beales soon started to crumble when officers failed to find any concrete evidence to connect Mrs Sandiford with the other three suspects.
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King and queen: Couple Rachel Dougall, 39, and Julian Ponder, 43, became well known in Bali for their lavish lifestyle but they were eventually arrested and accused of forming a drugs syndicate

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Fourth Man: Paul Beales, right, was also arrested on suspicion of being the 'muscle' of the group and given four years in jail last month

Police sources said that all conversations between Miss Dougall and Mrs Sandiford were carried out through mobile phones. But officers had failed to retrieve a SIM card during a raid on Miss Dougall’s Bali villa, meaning there was no physical evidence.

Insisting that she was just a drugs mule, forced to be courier because of threats against her children in Britain, Mrs Sandiford pointed the accusing finger at two of the other members of the ‘gang of four’.
She said that she had met Miss Dougall and Mr Beales in Bangkok before she took the flight to Bali. Mr Beales, she said, had placed the drugs in the lining of her suitcase and the actual owner of the cocaine was Miss Dougall. Both denied the accusation.

Dougall received a one-year jail sentence in the Denpasar District Court last month for hiding the crime. She could be on her way back to the UK by April, to be reunited with her daughter, because she had already been in jail for eight months awaiting trial.

At the time of her arrest, Dougall insisted she was the victim of a 'fit-up',
Beales, a long-time Bali resident, was also spared a harsh sentence when judges gave him four years for possession of a small amount of hashish.

Showing leniency to Mr Beales at his trial late last year, presiding judge John Tony Hutauruk said: ‘The defendant had admitted his wrongdoings and had promised not to repeat them.’

Mrs Sandiford has also admitted her wrongdoings, but her punishment today has been far more severe.
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Case: This is the villa in Bali used as the home of Rachel Dougall and Julian Ponder, Britons also arrested and accused of drug smuggling £1.6million of cocaine

The fourth Briton, Julian Ponder, is accused of being one of the lynchpins in a crime syndicate supplying the drug to rich tourists on the island.
Police claim to have found drugs hidden in cigarette packets at Mr Ponder’s luxury villa. Mr Ponder said he simply thought Mrs Sandiford was bringing a present for his daughter’s sixth birthday.

‘Julian Ponder believes 100 per cent that he was trapped by Lindsay,’ his lawyer said at the time.

Mr Ponder reportedly said he thought the gift-wrapped packages, bearing the words 'Enjoy Sweet Candy' were sweets for his little daughter.

'I was the subject of entrapment by Lindsay, who knew my daughter was going to be six shortly after her arrival,' he said.

'Having been caught she aided the police surveillance and brought the cocaine to me wrapped as if it was a present for my daughter. I never touched the drugs.'
Today Lindsay Sandiford burst in to tears and cried 'no, no, no' as she was sentenced to death in a Bali court.

A verdict is expected in the trial of Ponder as early as tomorrow, where he could be given the same sentence, which would make him the 13th Briton abroad facing the death penalty.



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