MANILA, Philippines (AP) — One of Indonesia’s most-wanted drug suspects has been arrested in the Philippines after an international manhunt and efforts were underway to have the suspect extradited to Jakarta to face charges, Indonesian and Philippine officials said Friday.
Philippine Immigration Commissioner Norman Tansingco said Gregor Johann Haas, 46, was detained in Bogo city in the central province of Cebu after the Interpol issued a red notice, an international alert for a wanted person, stemming from a criminal complaint filed against him by Indonesian authorities.
Tansingco described Haas as “a high-profile fugitive for being an alleged member of the Sinaloa cartel, a large international organized crime syndicate based in Culiacan, Sinaloa, Mexico that specializes in drug trafficking and money laundering activities."
Media reports say Haas is the father of popular Australian rugby league player Payne Haas.
Indonesian authorities have implicated Haas in an attempt to smuggle into Indonesia in December a shipment of floor ceramics filled with more than five kilograms (11 pounds) of methamphetamine, a highly addictive stimulant which is prohibited in Indonesia and the Philippines, the Bureau of Immigration in Manila said in a statement.
"The drugs were seized by Indonesian authorities who later discovered via testimonies elicited from arrested drug couriers that the packages were sent by Haas from Guadalajara, Mexico,” it said.
In Jakarta, Indonesia, Krishma Murti, the head of the National Police’s International Relation Division, told The Associated Press that Indonesian authorities wanted Haas to be flown to Indonesia immediately and face an investigation.
"We suspect he has networks all over Asia and in Australia,” Murti said.
There were no immediate comments from the arrested suspect and Payne Haas.
Under Indonesia’s strict drug law, Gregor Johann Haas could face the death penalty by firing squad.
Haas was flown from Cebu province to an immigration detention center in Metropolitan Manila while deportation proceedings were underway, the Philippine immigration bureau said without elaborating.
In this handout photo provided by the Philippine Bureau of Immigration, Australian national Gregor Johann Haas poses for a mugshot following his arrest in Cebu province, Central Philippines on Wednesday, May 15, 2024. One of Indonesia's most-wanted drug suspects has been arrested in the Philippines after an international manhunt and efforts were underway to have the suspect, reportedly the father of an Australian rugby star, extradited to Jakarta to face charges, Indonesian and Philippine officials said Friday. (Philippine Bureau of Immigration via AP)
In this handout photo provided by the Philippine Bureau of Immigration, Australian national Gregor Johann Haas poses for a mugshot following his arrest in Cebu province, Central Philippines on Wednesday, May 15, 2024. One of Indonesia's most-wanted drug suspects has been arrested in the Philippines after an international manhunt and efforts were underway to have the suspect, reportedly the father of an Australian rugby star, extradited to Jakarta to face charges, Indonesian and Philippine officials said Friday. (Philippine Bureau of Immigration via AP)
In this handout photo provided by the Philippine Bureau of Immigration, Australian national Gregor Johann Haas poses for a mugshot following his arrest in Cebu province, Central Philippines on Wednesday, May 15, 2024. One of Indonesia's most-wanted drug suspects has been arrested in the Philippines after an international manhunt and efforts were underway to have the suspect, reportedly the father of an Australian rugby star, extradited to Jakarta to face charges, Indonesian and Philippine officials said Friday. (Philippine Bureau of Immigration via AP)
In this handout photo provided by the Philippine Bureau of Immigration, Australian national Gregor Johann Haas poses for a mugshot following his arrest in Cebu province, Central Philippines on Wednesday, May 15, 2024. One of Indonesia's most-wanted drug suspects has been arrested in the Philippines after an international manhunt and efforts were underway to have the suspect, reportedly the father of an Australian rugby star, extradited to Jakarta to face charges, Indonesian and Philippine officials said Friday. (Philippine Bureau of Immigration via AP)
JENIN REFUGEE CAMP, West Bank (AP) — Gunfire has rung out for days from the West Bank's Jenin refugee camp. But this time, it’s not Israeli forces that are facing off against armed groups. It is the forces of the Palestinian Authority clashing with Palestinian gunmen.
The Palestinian Authority, which administers parts of the occupied territory, launched a rare crackdown earlier this month that has sparked one of the worst armed confrontations between Palestinians in years. The authority says it wants to bring law and order to what's long been a hotbed of militancy and a place where it has little control.
Its ability to contain armed groups there will reverberate far beyond the West Bank. The Palestinian Authority wants to position itself to take over governance in Gaza once the war there ends. But confronting Palestinians at a time when many view the authority as a subcontractor for Israel could deepen divisions in Palestinian society.
Here is a look at the days of fighting between Palestinians in the West Bank:
Earlier this month, security forces for the Western-backed Palestinian Authority stormed into Jenin refugee camp, a restive militant stronghold, and began a crackdown against armed groups.
Fighting has raged in the streets of the camp, and armored cars are seen patrolling. Palestinian security forces have taken over part of a hospital, using it as a base and shooting from inside, according to the United Nations.
At least one militant from the Islamic Jihad group has been killed as have two security force members, according to the Palestinian forces. About 50 people have been arrested.
At least two uninvolved civilians have been killed and some wounded. The fighting prompted the main U.N. agency for Palestinians, UNRWA, to suspend its services, including schooling. The violence has disrupted safe access for Palestinians to other services, including water and health. It also has complicated the restoration of services destroyed in previous Israeli raids of the camp.
The urban, built-up refugee camp in the northern West Bank houses Palestinians whose families were displaced in the 1948 war surrounding Israel's creation. It has long been a center for Palestinian militancy and a bastion of armed struggle against Israel. The militant groups Islamic Jihad and Hamas operate freely there, and its streets are regularly lined with posters depicting slain fighters as martyrs for the Palestinian cause.
The Palestinian Authority, which administers the main Palestinian population centers of the West Bank as part of interim peace agreements with Israel from the 1990s, has little presence in Jenin. Many people view the Palestinian Authority forces with suspicion and see them as serving Israel's interests because of security coordination that has facilitated Israel's own crackdowns on Palestinians.
The refugee camp and the adjacent city of Jenin have long been targets of Israel in its stated bid to stamp out militancy. Since the start of the war in Gaza, which has sparked a wave of violence in the West Bank, Israel has raided or carried out airstrikes in Jenin multiple times, killing dozens and leaving heavy destruction.
Palestinian health officials say Israeli raids throughout the West Bank since Oct. 7, 2023, have killed more than 800 Palestinians. Israel says most of these are militants, but youth throwing stones and people not involved in confrontations have also been killed.
According to Brig. Gen. Anwar Rajab, the spokesperson for the Palestinian security forces, the raid is meant to impose law and order and restore peace and security. The troops were focused on “eradicating” Iran-backed groups that were trying to incite “chaos and anarchy,” he added. The raid will end when those goals are reached, according to the security forces.
But the raid is also shining a spotlight on the Palestinian Authority's ability to impose order and security in a restive area. With no clear vision for who will administer postwar Gaza, the raid could convince skeptics that the authority has what it takes to rule the Palestinian enclave. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is considering an agreement with Hamas that would create a committee of politically independent technocrats to administer the Gaza Strip after the war. The committee would report to him.
The Biden administration sees a rehabilitated Palestinian Authority as the best option to govern and secure postwar Gaza. The U.S. has for years invested heavily in training the Palestinian security forces, and the administration has seen its re-entry into Gaza, after being routed by Hamas in 2007, as a feasible replacement for Hamas, whose rule Israel has sought to end with the war.
Israel rejects this idea, seeing the Palestinian Authority as too weak to be able to contain Hamas. It says it will maintain open-ended security control over Gaza.
The incoming Trump administration has not yet laid out its vision for postwar Gaza, but Trump's first term was overwhelmingly supportive of Israel's positions.
Palestinians are not strangers to divisions within their society, with the most prominent the rift between Hamas and Abbas' Fatah party. The parties fought bloody street wars in Gaza before Hamas forced Fatah out of the territory, and the sides have failed to reconcile since.
Since then, the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority has tried to diminish Hamas' influence in the West Bank, often with Israel's help.
Reeling from the yearslong internal rift, Palestinians have staged general strikes and protests calling for unity. But the raid could deepen the perception of the Palestinian Authority as a facilitator of Israel's whims and potentially undermine any popular support for it to return to effectively rule Gaza.
Goldenberg reported from Tel Aviv, Israel.
Armored Palestinian security vehicles are seen on the road as Palestinian forces mount a major raid against militants in the Jenin refugee camp in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Monday, Dec. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)
Closed shops during a general strike called as Palestinian security forces mount a major raid against militants in the Jenin refugee camp in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Monday, Dec. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)
Journalists take cover from gunfire as Palestinian security forces mount a major raid against militants in the Jenin refugee camp in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Monday, Dec. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)
Armored Palestinian security vehicles are seen on the road as Palestinian forces mount a major raid against militants in the Jenin refugee camp in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Monday, Dec. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)
Palestinians sit in front of closed shops during a general strike called as Palestinian security forces mount a major raid against militants in the Jenin refugee camp in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Monday, Dec. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)
Palestinians sit in front of closed shops during a general strike called as Palestinian security forces mount a major raid against militants in the Jenin refugee camp in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Monday, Dec. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)
