Accused drug smuggler told family he was in Cairns

SYDNEY - The sister of one of nine Australians accused of heroin smuggling in Bali yesterday revealed that she had promised not to tell the family about his first overseas trip.

Brisbane teenager Michael Czugaj, 19, has had an emotional reunion with his parents at a Denpasar jail after his arrest on drug charges.

Indonesian police allege Czugaj and three others each had more than 2kg of heroin strapped to their bodies at the airport.

After emotional greetings, Michael told Steve and Vicky Czugaj he wished it had never happened.

"I wish I'd talked to someone," Michael said during the meeting, aired on Network Nine's A Current Affair.

His father said "you should have been able to talk to me, mate."

"It's more my fault than anyone's, I keep treating you like a big boy."

His mother added "you're not really a big boy are you? You're my baby", before Michael hugged her in tears.

Michael's older sister Melanie told the programme she had promised to tell family he had gone to Cairns.

"The deal had been made (and) he had been offered money to do something for these people," she said.

"He came to me and said you've got to tell everybody that I'm going to Cairns and said he'd be back in two weeks and then they came and picked him up, a group of Asians."

The programme reported that Michael, who had never been overseas and didn't own a passport, was recruited by an Asian drug syndicate which was trying to move heroin worth $4 million from Bali to Australia.

The teenager told his parents he hadn't sought information about the deal until it was too late.

"I was just too excited to get out of the country," he told them during the meeting.

"I didn't even ask questions and then got over here and they said you're doing this and they threatened me."

His father said "you're just an Australian kid the same as any other Australian kid.

"You've just been bloody trapped into this shit."

Mr Czugaj told the programme he was confident his son had no choice in taking part in the scheme.

"They got his birth certificate, they got his passport, they got everything for him," he said.

"We are confident he was forced into it."

He warned other parents to watch their children "because it happened in no time at all".

"You can't see anything going wrong," Mr Czugaj said.

"One minute he's there and the next minute he's gone."

Asked if he feared for his safety, he said "not for me but for the kids".

"I'm worried about (my) kids."

- AAP