On 16 November 2000, the Denpasar District Court sentenced French cook Michael Loic Blanc, 27, to life imprisonment for smuggling 3.85 kilograms of hashish onto Bali.[1] Airport security officers had found the drug in two scuba tanks in his luggage when he arrived from India via Bangkok on 26 December 1999: the emptied tanks held 189 rolls and 178 packets of hashish.[1]

Prosecutors had sought the death penalty, and Blanc, who said the tanks belonged to a friend in Bombay and that he knew nothing of the drug, saw his lawyers appeal the verdict at once.[1][2] He remained in custody for 18 years: his life term was cut to 20 years in 2008, he won parole in 2014 and was deported to France in July 2018.[2]