Anthony Haritos facing drug charges in Indonesia after police raid on catamaran

DARWIN businessman Anthony Haritos has reportedly been arrested in Indonesia on drug charges.

Prominent Darwin business identity Anthony Haritos, 63, has reportedly been charged with minor drug offences in Indonesia after a police search of his catamaran. PICTURE: Supplied/Facebook

DARWIN businessman Anthony Haritos has reportedly been arrested in Indonesia on drugs charges.

Haritos, 63, was arrested in the island of Sumba, in Eastern Indonesia, 7 News reported.

The prominent local business identity was reportedly sailing from Australia to Rote when he struck a patch of rough weather, crippling his catamaran and leaving it to float adrift.

He was rescued dehydrated and exhausted late last month after four days floating directionless at sea, but a drug test in hospital where he was recuperating — conducted at the request of police — returned a positive result for methamphetamine.

A subsequent search of the damaged catamaran reportedly uncovered 0.06g of the drug.

Haritos’s Indonesian lawyer, Edward Firdaus Pangkahila, told 7 News the drug test and search of the boat was prompted by a video circulating on social media showing a man with tattoos identical to Haritos’s appearing to take drugs.

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“That made the police feel suspicious. Police asked the hospital to conduct a urine test and it was found that his urine was positive to drugs,” Mr Pangkahila told 7 News.

“Following that discovery, days after, when his condition got better, police asked him to go with them to the vessel. Police searched the vessel.

“The drugs were found under his bed, 0.06 grams of methamphetamine. And he admitted it was his.”

Prominent Darwin business identity Anthony Haritos, 63, has reportedly been charged with minor drug offences in Indonesia after a police search of his catamaran (pictured). PICTURE: Supplied/Facebook

The minuscule among of seized drugs would sell for between $20 and $60 in Australia but carries a potential 12 year jail sentence under Indonesia’s notoriously hard line anti-drugs laws.

Edward told 7 News Haritos told police the drugs were to help keep him awake during long watches at sea.

During the search of the catamaran Haritos slipped and fell, aggravating on old back injury, for which he is expected to travel to Bali for treatment.

Photos of Haritos show him bedridden by the back injury, and in a statement, East Sumba police said the decision to allow the drug suspect to travel to Bali to tend to his back injury was a “humanitarian” decision.

Haritos has handed his passport to Sumba police, to ensure he won’t skip the country ahead of anticipated court proceedings.