Australia issues warning after model's Bali arrest

Australians have been given strong warnings of the dangers of using drugs in Asia following the arrest in Bali of a top model, allegedly found with Ecstasy at a late-night party.

Michelle Leslie, the 24-year-old Adelaide model and advertising star, faces up to 10 years in jail if found guilty under Indonesia's unrelenting crackdown on illegal drugs.

Leslie, also known as Michelle Lee, was holidaying in Bali after working in Singapore when police arrested her and four others at a party at Kutas Cliffside GWK Cultural Park on Saturday.

She had flown to the island against the wishes of her family, who were concerned for her safety after the dramatic trial and conviction of Queensland trainee beauty therapist Schapelle Corby.

Nine other Australians face the firing squad for their alleged role in a heroin trafficking ring.

"I've been telling her don't go to Bali," Leslie's mother, Violet, told the Adelaide Advertiser.

"Not that she was going to do anything stupid, but she's a young, attractive girl and you don't know what people around her may do."

Leslie's father, Albert, told the newspaper that his daughter avoided all drugs, including medications.

"She doesn't take drugs - she doesn't take Panadol," he said.

"She won't even take anything when she's sick."

The possibility of yet another Australian being hauled before a Bali court on drug charges has renewed warnings about the dangers involved, especially with large-scale undercover operations in Bali to block the island's pivotal role in international narcotics trafficking.

"Australians, I would have thought, through the Schapelle Corby case and the Bali Nine case, would know to keep right away from drugs in places like Indonesia, and for that matter Southeast Asia more generally," said Foreign Minister Alexander Downer.

"We've got an Australian on death row in Singapore for drug-trafficking. We've got two Australians and an Australian resident in death row in Vietnam for drug-trafficking. The point must have arisen where people have realised that getting involved in drugs in Asia is perilous to say the least."

Australian consular officials have visited Leslie in a holding cell at Bali police headquarters in Denpasar and have offered help in finding legal representation and other advice.

Leslie has been working internationally through the Chic modelling agency, which removed her picture and details from its website after the news of the arrest broke.

She has found fame fronting a campaign for Antz Pantz and is also known as the face of the Crystelle lingerie line in Australia.

She was arrested for the alleged possession of two suspected Ecstasy tablets, although the nature of the tablets had still to be confirmed by tests yesterday.

A total of 15 tablets were seized from the five people arrested at the dance party.

Leslie's parents said the tablets did not belong to their daughter, but had been found in handbags that other people had left in her much larger bag.

Under Indonesian law, Leslie could be jailed for up to 10 years if convicted.

Sources told reporters for both News Ltd and Fairfax newspapers in Bali that she was more likely to face a lesser penalty, similar to the one imposed on 42-year-old John Julian Pyle, an Adelaide man sentenced to five months' jail for possession of 1.8g of cannabis resin - a light sentence by Indonesian standards.

In other developments, Justice Minister Chris Ellison said the Australian Government would go into bat as hard as it could to block the execution of any of the Bali Nine sentenced to death.

And in a blow for Corby, Ellison said reports that her sentence was to be halved to 10 years appeared to be only rumour.