Three young Australians apparently on the holiday of a lifetime have been arrested at a Bolivian international airport after explosives were found in one of the men's backpacks. 
Julian Giovanni Vicenzo Musumeci, 24, Justin Maurice Kwong Wei Sun, 25, and Liam Mark Eales, 25, were reported by Bolivian and Brazilian news outlets as being held in custody in Bolivia awaiting a judge's orders after their arrest last week.
It is understood two of the men have been released but remain in Bolivia, while the remaining man awaits trial, according to Liam Eales' father Geoff.
The trio were stopped at Viru Viru International Airport in Santa Cruz de La Sierra while waiting to board flight G3 7601 on Brazilian airline Gol to South America's busiest airport, Guarulhos, in Sao Paulo on   November 12. Brazilian authorities are on high alert ahead of the 2016 Olympics.
A spokesman for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in Canberra confirmed DFAT was providing consular assistance to three Australians arrested in Bolivia and said "due to privacy reasons we will not be making further comment".
Santa Cruz de Sierra newspaper El Deber quoted police commander Freddy Meneses as saying the trio was searched in a pre-boarding area after having passed through security. Bolivian anti-narcotics special forces found the alleged explosives in a backpack.
El Deber later reported a backpack alleged to belong to Mr Musumeci contained "a dynamite canister, a detonator and a bag of pink granules yet to be identified" which police said could be used as a homemade explosive device.
Reached at work in Townsville, Geoff Eales said his son had not been charged and was free to leave Bolivia - but had been asked to stay by the lawyer for the charged man.
"It's just been a lot of crap quite frankly, a lot of bullshit about nothing, from Liam's point of view. He's done absolutely nothing wrong."
His son had got on the plane without incident but when one of his companions was detained he "went back" for him and was also arrested. "He's been asked to wait around until his friend goes through his court case. That will be happening shortly. His friend is out of jail as well. That's all I know."
The carrying of explosives at Bolivian airports carries a three- to five-year jail sentence.
with Lisa Cox