A former Dallas-based basketball star is now facing the death penalty abroad after Indonesian police allegedly found marijuana in his possession.
Jarred Shaw, 34, was arrested in May of 2025 in the Tangerang Regency of Indonesia, after customs officials claimed that they flagged a suspicious package sent to his residence from Thailand, per AP News. Inside the package were reportedly over 130 pieces of candy containing THC, the primary psychoactive compound in marijuana, which is strictly outlawed under Indonesian law.
Shaw, a former basketball player for Oklahoma State and Utah State, starred at Carter High School in Dallas, where he was named District 11-4A Defensive Player of the Year as a senior.
Shaw had been playing in the Indonesian Basketball League since 2022.
Now, he is being heavily scrutinized by online commenters, some of whom have compared his case against the similar circumstances of the female basketball player, Brittany Griner.
Griner was arrested for attempting to bring a THC vape pen into Russia in 2022 while scheduled to play for a foreign women’s basketball league in the country. She was detained for roughly nine months until then-President Joe Biden’s administration agreed to a prisoner swap with Russia for her release.
However, the Biden administration seemingly failed to secure a fair trade, allowing Russia to dictate the terms by choosing Viktor Bout – the infamous “Merchant of Death,” once considered the world’s most prolific arms dealer with ties to the KGB, in return for Griner’s release, as previously reported by The Dallas Express.
The big difference in both cases is that Shaw isn’t an icon for the LGBTQ movement or the WNBA, and therefore has less financial or political pull to call on the U.S. Government to mediate his release from Indonesia’s overtly harsh laws.
Based on Texas law, if Shaw were found with the same THC products in his possession in the Lone Star State, he would likely be facing a class A misdemeanor or low-level felony. Not a potential death sentence.
Under Indonesia’s notoriously harsh standards, the former basketball star could face life imprisonment or even execution by firing squad. However, it is important to note that execution is rarely a chosen sentence for cannabis possession in Indonesia.
Yet, it doesn’t help that Shaw’s legal troubles date back more than a decade, when he was playing for Utah State.
While at Utah State, he was arrested in December of 2013 after police found him and two others using drugs at a Logan residence during a sexual assault investigation. He pleaded guilty to felony drug possession, receiving a 10-day jail sentence (served on weekends to allow him to finish his degree) and 36 months of probation, per the Cache Valley Daily News.
In September of 2014, a judge ended his probation early to let him pursue a professional basketball career abroad.
Following the former Dallas-based semi-pro’s latest arrest, Shaw’s Indonesian team, the Tangerang Hawks, quickly cut ties.
League officials also issued a lifetime ban to Shaw, due to a zero-tolerance drug policy.
“We don’t tolerate players, administrators or anyone in the field involved in drugs. There is no room for drug users in the basketball world,” said Indonesian Basketball League Chair, Budisatrio Djiwandono.