The American basketball player could face a death penalty for the drug smuggling in Indonesia

Jakarta, Indonesia – Jarred Shaw, an American basketball player who plays in the Indonesia basketball league, was arrested in the country for allegations of the smuggling drugs, the authorities said on Thursday.

The 34-year-old Shaw was arrested on May 7, after the police had searched his apartment outside the capital Jakarta and confiscated 132 cannabis sweeties with a weight of 869 grams, said Ronald Sipayung, chief of police at Soekarno-Hatta Airport. The police received a tip from the airport customs that Shaw received a suspicious package from Thailand in which cannabis was decriminalized in November 2024, said Sipayung.

Cannabis is illegal in Indonesia according to the strict anti-drug laws of the country. According to Sipayung, Shaw is guilty of a lifelong prison sentence or a death penalty in the find.

According to AP, around 530 people in Indonesia are in Indonesia, mainly due to drug-related crimes, including almost 100 foreigners, according to the AP data of the ministry for immigration and corrections from December 2024.

“A criminal offense with sweets with Delta 9 THC (tetrahydrocannabinol), which implied the basketball athlete JDS, was handled by the narcotics department of the airport police Soekarno-Hatta,” said Sipayung.

“We are still carrying out the examination to uncover the international drug network behind this case and stop its distribution,” he added.

Shaw told the police during an interrogation that he intended to share the cannabis sweeties with his teammates, said Sipayung. He made no explanation when he was presented by the authorities on Wednesday and carried an orange prisoner t-shirt and a mask with bound hands.

Shaw, born in Dallas, Texas, is a former college basketball star at Utah State University, who also played in the G-League of the NBA in the 2015/16 season. He has been playing in the Indonesian basketball league since 2022 and signed a contract with the Tangerang Hawks last year.

The Hawks Shaw fired on Thursday and he was banned by the IBL for life.

“We do not tolerate players, administrators or someone in the field of drugs,” said IBL chairwoman Budisatrio Djiwandono in a statement. “There is no space for drug users in the basketball world.”

According to the Cache Valley Daily, Shaw was previously sentenced to the possession of Cannabi's third degree in Utah in Logan, Utah, in prison. Then, a junior in the state of Utah, Shaw was suspended by the aggies for almost two months and was stopped again after he had guilty.