Distressed: Alleged drug trafficker identified as Lindsay Sandiford in front of the huge pile of cocaine at the Customs Office in Denpasar, Bali
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Five years ago she was a seemingly ordinary housewife, living in a modest house on a suburban street.
Last night, British mother-of-two Lindsay Sandiford was languishing in a Bali jail cell after being arrested for allegedly smuggling £1.6million of cocaine.
She has already faced the shame of being paraded before the media, bowing her head and hiding her tears with her hands.
But the 56-year-old single mother's eventual fate could be far worse. Cocaine smuggling on such a scale - police claim they caught her with 4.7kg of the Class A drug - is punishable by death by firing squad.
Back on the street that she once called home in the genteel town of Cheltenham, her former neighbours did not seem entirely surprised.
One branded her the 'neighbour from hell' while others said her two boys, both now adults, were out-of-control.
Humiliated: The British housewife covered her face with her hand yesterday as she is paraded in front of the media. She was arrested at Bali's international airport after alighting from an aeroplane
Strict laws: Smuggling drugs on to the Indonesian island can result in a maximum penalty of death by firing squad
A 63-year-old man who lived next door to the £275,000 detached property where once she lived said she was evicted around five years ago for allegedly failing to pay rent.
He said: 'She gives off the impression that she's a well-to-do middle-aged woman, but she's not at all. She was a real neighbour from hell.'
The man claimed she used to have men coming and going from her house at all hours of the night, and the police were regular visitors because she had trouble keeping her two boys in school.
He added: 'It doesn't surprise me at all that she's been arrested for drugs. I don't know what was going on really - and I suspect neither does she.
'Her house was burgled because she borrowed money from someone and did not pay it back. From what I remember, they gutted the place.'
He also said the police had attended the house on a number of occasions. Fellow neighbour, Colin Richardson, was also glad to see her leave.
He said: 'I'm glad to see the back of her. She was totally the wrong sort of person in this sort of neighbourhood.'
'Neighbour from hell': Sandiford lived at this £275,000 property which she had rented in Cheltenham
'One of her lads was sent to a special school because he never used to go to school. Police were called because of family rows.
'There were people turning up looking for money. Guys used to turn up in blacked out cars, talking on one mobile phone then another mobile phone.
'They made a lot of racket with their coming and going. When they were kicked out, the house was empty for seven months. I think the boys were playing golf in there.
'She gave the impression when she first moved up here that she had friends in high places, and people like that were friendly to her but after a while that disintegrated and she went downhill.'
Sandford is currently understood to be living in Redcar, Cleveland.
She was picked up after entering Bali from Bangkok with the drugs in the lining of her suitcase, according to police.
Sandford is currently understood to be living in Redcar, Cleveland.
She was picked up after entering Bali from Bangkok with the drugs in the lining of her suitcase, according to police.
'Conspirators': A younger British woman, centre, and three others suspected of being on hand to receive the drugs were arrested and dressed in prison uniforms with their faces covered by black balaclavas
Paraded: Three Britons and an Indian national were seen dressed in ill-fitting orange outfits and flip-flops after their arrests
Shamed: The suspected smugglers are lined up in front of the media, all with their faces covered aside from Mrs Sandiford
Another British woman and her husband, as well as a second British man and an Indian national were arrested later after Sandiford reportedly agreed to set up a sting operation.
She is understood to have taken part in a 'controlled delivery' at an undisclosed location on the paradise island.
She is understood to have taken part in a 'controlled delivery' at an undisclosed location on the paradise island.
Balinese police yesterday paraded all five suspects at two press conferences in the capital city of Denpasar.
Sandiford, who had allegedly been caught with 4.7 kilograms (11 pounds) of cocaine, covered her head and appeared to weep as she sat behind the Class A haul.
She was dressed in a standard-issue orange T-shirt and still wearing her glasses and jewellery.
Customs official Made Wijaya told reporters that Sandiford's innocent demeanour was just an act.
'Despite what you see as a seemingly unassuming appearance, we believe that she has been part of a international narcotics syndicate for a long time,' he said.
'This is a big international network.'. The package was cut open with a knife during the press conference to reveal white powder.
The other four suspects were 'shown off' separately by police. However, they had their faces covered with balaclavas.
All were dressed in orange prison uniforms while one wore shorts and green flip-flops under his overalls. The married couple, who own a villa in Bali, according to the The Jakarta Post, have only been identified as JAP and RLD.
RLD shouted angrily, 'It's a fit-up', and indicated that the evidence had been planted. Sandiford was arrested on May 19 at Denpasar airport after arriving on a Thai Airways flight from Bangkok, according to Mr Wijaya.
COMPLAINTS TO HER LOCAL PAPER
Lindsay Sandiford appeared in her local newspaper, the Gloucestershire Echo, in July 2004 after a row with her local education authority over her troubled son Eliot, then 14.
He was left without a school place after being suspended from Cheltenham Bournside School 16 times and eventually sent to a 're-integration unit'.
After the story appeared Gloucestershire County Council quickly found Eliot a place at Coln House School.
In July 2007 Sandiford appeared in the same newspaper after Eliot's £400 Xbox stopped working.
She complained that the Game store in Cheltenham would not replace it - but she had no proof of purchase and claimed she paid for it in cash.
The drugs were in the lining of her suitcase covered by water bottles. They were found after security staff put the luggage through an x-ray machine.
When Sandiford was interviewed by police she broke down and claimed that her children, who live in the UK, had been threatened and that was the only reason she had agreed to smuggle the drugs.
She subsequently consented to take part in the sting operation and delivered the cocaine to JAP, who was arrested.
He directed officers to his villa in Tabanan where police discovered 48.94g of cocaine hidden in a black bag and arrested his wife, RLD.
Using information extracted from these two suspects, police were able to capture the other two suspects the next day, kompas.com reported today.
They arrested NA, the Indian national, in a villa in Badung, where they found 78 plastic bags filled with ecstasy. They arrested PB in a villa in Kuta with 3.36 grams of hashish.
Police said they will continue to use Sandiford to lure out other members of the alleged Bali drug syndicate.
Arrests: Sandiford was detained at Denpasar Airport on the paradise island of Bali, Indonesia
Island paradise: Bali was once a haven for drugs but in the past ten years the authorities have cracked down on the importation of narcotics and anyone found with more than a few grams of Class A drugs faces death
If convicted, all five face a maximum penalty of death by firing squad. Mr Wijaya said that Bali was working hard to stop international smugglers who brought drugs on to the island.
DRUG SCENE: A CONTRADICTION
Indonesia's drug scene is seen as something of a contradiction - as there is relatively high levels of illegal drug use and some of the strictest laws against them.
The Indonesian authorities are ready to make an example of foreigners who use illegal drugs in their jurisdiction, with Bali's Kerobokan Prison housing plenty of non-Indonesians.
Divided into three groups, category 1 drugs are recognised as 'therapeutically useless with a high potential for causing addiction'.
They include cocaine and heroin. Sentences are the most strictest - with life imprisonment for possession, and the death penalty for convicted drug traffickers.
Group 2 drugs, such as morphine and methadone, are seen as 'useful for therapeutic purposes, but dangerous due to their high addictive potential'.
Possession is punishable by 3 to 10 years' imprisonment, and fines of around £40,000 to £400,000.
Trafficking is punishable by 4 to 12 years' imprisonment and £60,000 to £600,000 fines.
Group 3 drugs, such as codeine, are seen as 'therapeutically useful and moderately addictive'.
Possession is punishable by 2 to 7 years' imprisonment, and a fine of £30,000 to £280,000. While trafficking is punishable by 3 to 10 years and fine of £40,000 to £400,000.
'If this woman, and anyone else who is subsequently charged, is found guilty, the punishment will be the death penalty,' he said.
Bali regularly parades suspected drug smugglers - and their wares - in front of the press in a deliberate effort to shame them.
Indonesia has extremely strict drug laws and convicted smugglers can be executed, with more than 140 people currently on death row, a third of them foreigners.
Bali was once a haven for drugs but in the past ten years the authorities have cracked down on the importation of narcotics and anyone found with more than a few grams of Class A drugs faces death.
One of the most famous Western detainees is 35-year-old Australian Schapelle Corby, who was convicted of smuggling 9.2lbs of marijuana on to the island.
She is serving a 20-year sentence, which has been reduced in recent months, and she hopes to receive parole by 2015.
Last November, a 14-year-old Australian boy was sentenced to two months in a brutal jail on the holiday island for alleged possession of marijuana.
Two members of Australian drug smuggling gang the 'Bali Nine', arrested in 2005, are on death row, while seven others face lengthy jail terms.
In February, 53-year-old Jack Walker from Greater Manchester, was given a reprieve when he was told he would not face the death penalty after allegedly being caught with a large quantity of crystal meth.
A Foreign Office spokesman said: 'We are aware of the arrest in Bali, and we stand ready to provide consular assistance.'
Spectacular: Hundreds of thousands of tourists visit Bali every year for the sublime views
Culled from The Daily Mail UK.
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