THE man accused of planning the Bali nightclub bombings was arrested yesterday as he boarded a ferry on the Indonesian island of Java.

In their biggest coup since last month’s bombing, Indonesian police announced the capture of Imam Samudra, a 35-year-old computer engineer, who has been the object of a nationwide search.

They said that they expected to make further arrests as raids continued in the province of West Java.

After a chaotic start, in which police and intelligence agencies competed for control of the case, the investigators claim to have identified the core members of the gang which killed almost 200 tourists and locals on 12 October.

The international team of investigators — which includes police from Australia, the United States and Britain — has distributed drawings and descriptions of nine Indonesian men all of them named by the first arrested suspect. Mr Samudra is alleged to have been in overall command of the bombing plot.

However, many aspects of the conspiracy remain murky, above all the relationship between Mr Samudra, the alleged mastermind, and al-Qaeda.

“We are exploring the possibility that his accomplices are in the province where we arrested Samudra,” said Brigadier-General Edward Aritonang, the national police spokesman. “I am confident that the rest will be caught soon.”

The first breakthrough came two weeks ago with the arrest of a mechanic named solely Amrozi, who is said to have publicly confessed and expressed regret that the bombing killed so few Americans.

The detectives admit that Mr Amrozi’s testimony is unreliable, but insist that they have built up an accurate picture of the events leading up to the bombings.

According to this account, Mr Amrozi bought almost a tonne of the chemical fertiliser potassium chloride from two shops close to his home in East Java. He also bought a Mitsubishi L-300 minivan and modified it to disguise its origins and make it easier to conceal the bomb.

His brother, Ali Imron, then drove the minivan and the chemicals to Bali. Other members of the gang aroused suspicion when they bought a second-hand get-away motorcycle. The motorcycle dealer later gave precise descriptions of the group, which included Mr Amrozi, who subsequently tried to change his appearance by having his shoulder-length hair cut.

The bombs were assembled in a third-floor room of a rented house before being moved into the van to be taken to the target site outside the Sari Club in Kuta, the heart of Bali’s tourist area.

One of the gang planted a smaller device in Paddy’s Irish Pub, which stood opposite the Sari Club. Ali Imron drove the minivan with the main bomb to the Sari Club, where he parked the van illegally, blocking traffic behind him, before locking it and walking away.

Explore World News

• World Agenda

• Iraq News

• US & Americas News

• Europe News

• Middle East News

• Asia News

• Africa News

• Ireland News

Times Recommends

• The Japanese Prime Minister is doomed: or is he?
• Brighton company 'involved in cyber attack'
• The art of survival: it’s all in the mind