Trial opens in Bali for US man charged with receiving illegal ADHD pills

DENPASAR, Indonesia (AP) — A man charged with importing drugs to Indonesia faces up to 15 years in prison under the country's tough drug laws in a trial that began Tuesday on the tourist island of Bali.

William Wallace Molyneaux V, a U.S. citizen, was arrested May 23 after he allegedly collected a package containing illegal drugs at a post office near Kuta beach, a popular tourist spot.

Prosecutor I Made Dipa Umbara said the arrest followed a tip that Molyneaux received a suspicious package by mail from London. Bali’s Narcotic Agency seized the package and investigators reported they found 99 Adderall pills in seven silver medicine boxes containing 1.86 grams of amphetamine.

The 27-year-old resident of Brooksville, Florida, told authorities that he was addicted to amphetamines because he has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD.

Molyneaux told authorities he bought Adderall online from the dark web and paid the equivalent of $250 in Monero, a cryptocurrency, while on vacation in Bali, Umbara said.

“ADHD medications, such as Adderall, consist of amphetamines and are therefore illegal in Indonesia, no exceptions,” Umbara told the Denpasar District Court.

Molyneaux faces multiple charges including importing drugs, which carries a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison and a fine up to 10 billion rupiah ($609,980).

A court document showed Molyneaux was transferred from a detention center to a rehabilitation center in Bali on July 9 after Molyneaux’s U.S. doctor provided a written statement saying he suffers ADHD and needs treatment.

The panel of three judges adjourned the trial until Aug. 12, when the court will hear witness testimony.

Indonesia's strict drug laws include possible execution by a firing squad for convicted traffickers.

About 530 people are on death row in Indonesia, mostly for drug-related crimes, including 96 foreigners, according to Ministry of Immigration and Corrections data. Indonesia’s most recent executions of an Indonesian citizen and three foreigners were carried out in July 2016.

U.S. citizen William Wallace Molyneaux V of Brooksville, Fla., who is charged with importing drugs to Indonesia, talks to an interpreter as he sits on the defendant's chair during a hearing at the district court in Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia on Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Firdia Lisnawati)

U.S. citizen William Wallace Molyneaux V of Brooksville, Fla., left, who is charged with importing drugs to Indonesia, walks with his lawyer upon arrival for a hearing at the district court in Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia on Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Firdia Lisnawati)

U.S. citizen William Wallace Molyneaux V of Brooksville, Fla., who is charged with importing drugs to Indonesia, enters the courtroom for a hearing at the district court in Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia on Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Firdia Lisnawati)

U.S. citizen William Wallace Molyneaux V of Brooksville, Fla., who is charged with importing drugs to Indonesia, talks to an interpreter as he sits on the defendant's chair during a hearing at the district court in Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia on Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Firdia Lisnawati)

U.S. citizen William Wallace Molyneaux V of Brooksville, Fla., left, who is charged with importing drugs to Indonesia, walks with his lawyer upon arrival for a hearing at the district court in Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia on Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Firdia Lisnawati)

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA’s giant new moon rocket headed to the launch pad Saturday in preparation for astronauts’ first lunar fly-around in more than half a century.

The out-and-back trip could blast off as early as February.

The 322-foot (98-meter) rocket began its 1 mph (1.6 kph) creep from Kennedy Space Center’s Vehicle Assembly Building at daybreak. The four-mile (six-kilometer) trek was expected to take until nightfall.

Throngs of space center workers and their families gathered in the predawn chill to witness the long-awaited event, delayed for years. They huddled together ahead of the Space Launch System rocket’s exit from the building, built in the 1960s to accommodate the Saturn V rockets that sent 24 astronauts to the moon during the Apollo program. The cheering crowd was led by NASA’s new administrator Jared Isaacman and all four astronauts assigned to the mission.

Weighing in at 11 million pounds (5 million kilograms), the Space Launch System rocket and Orion crew capsule on top made the move aboard a massive transporter that was used during the Apollo and shuttle eras. It was upgraded for the SLS rocket’s extra heft.

The first and only other SLS launch — which sent an empty Orion capsule into orbit around the moon — took place back in November 2022.

“This one feels a lot different, putting crew on the rocket and taking the crew around the moon,” NASA’s John Honeycutt said on the eve of the rocket’s rollout.

Heat shield damage and other capsule problems during the initial test flight required extensive analyses and tests, pushing back this first crew moonshot until now. The astronauts won’t orbit the moon or even land on it. That giant leap will take come on the third flight in the Artemis lineup a few years from now.

Commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover and Christina Koch — longtime NASA astronauts with spaceflight experience — will be joined on the 10-day mission by Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen, a former fighter pilot awaiting his first rocket ride.

They will be the first people to fly to the moon since Apollo 17’s Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt closed out the triumphant lunar-landing program in 1972. Twelve astronauts strolled the lunar surface, beginning with Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin in 1969.

NASA is waiting to conduct a fueling test of the SLS rocket on the pad in early February before confirming a launch date. Depending on how the demo goes, “that will ultimately lay out our path toward launch,” launch director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson said on Friday.

The space agency has only five days to launch in the first half of February before bumping into March.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

In this photo provided by NASA, the Artemis II SLS (Space Launch System) rocket and Orion spacecraft, secured to the mobile launcher, is seen inside the Vehicle Assembly building as preparations continue for roll out to Launch Pad 39B, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. (Aubrey Gemignani/NASA via AP)

NASA's Artemis II SLS (Space Launch System) rocket and Orion spacecraft, secured to the mobile launcher, is seen inside the Vehicle Assembly building as preparations continue for roll out to Launch Pad 39B, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. (Keegan Barber/NASA via AP)