Drug trafficker facing death penalty in Indonesia escapes through jail sewers

The man escaped from jail in Tangerang, Banten province

Credit: FAJRIN RAHARJO/AFP via Getty Images

A Chinese drug dealer on death row in Indonesia made a desperate dash for freedom by tunneling through the prison sewage system, the police have revealed.

In an escape bid resembling a movie plot, Cai Changpan, 37, who was convicted of methamphetamine smuggling, dug a hole from his cell in a jail in Tangerang, near the capital, Jakarta, and entered waste pipes that led to roads outside, Yusri Yunus, a police spokesperson told reporters. 

The runaway’s cell mate revealed that he had been plotting his escape for five to six months, digging the hole with tools taken from a construction project in the prison kitchen. He timed his flight according to the changing of the prison guards.

Cai was sentenced to death in 2017 for trafficking almost 300 pounds of crystal meth, reported Indonesian news site detik.com. A police investigation found 154 pounds of meth concealed in chicken coop cleaner equipment.

In 2017 he staged an earlier escape from a police detention centre by breaking through a bathroom wall.

Cai is not alone. Several audacious jailbreaks have been recorded in Indonesia’s creaking prison system in recent years.

In 2017, an American prisoner held for drug possession escaped from a Bali jail by scaling the wall with a fellow inmate. Conflicting reports at the time suggested the pair had either mounted the wall with a ladder from a construction site or cut a hole in the roof with a hacksaw.

In the same year, more than 400 inmates escaped from the overcrowded Sialang Bungkuk facility on Sumatra island after breaking through the prison gate and overwhelming the guards.

While in 2019, more than 100 inmates fled the Siak district jail on Sumatra after rioting and a fire broke out at the detention centre.