Canadian man being held against his will in Thailand, family says

[bkkcanuck8]

5 minutes ago, Kerryd said:

 

 

While looking up the penalties for drug possession/trafficking, I came across this bit on a legal site (with a guide to Thai laws for tourists):

"  Selling and Smuggling

West Africans living in Thailand are randomly investigated by the Immigration Bureau and Thai drug enforcement agencies for selling drugs and organizing drug smuggling operations.

The Immigration Bureau identifies West Africans from Nigeria, Mali and Ghana, and the East Africa Republic of Kenya as foreigners watched closely for connections to drug activity. 

Other groups of foreigners suspected of drug activity in Thailand are Southeast Asian Chinese, Iranians, Indians, Pakistanis, and Nepalese. Iranian groups have been recently investigated for smuggling Ice into Thailand through international airports.  The northern border of Thailand is the most frequently used route for drug smuggling followed by borders along the Mekong River and international airports."

I keep in mind though that he (supposedly) is planning on pleading guilty to "distributing marijuana" so I suspect he was caught doing a little more than just smoking or having a couple joints in his pocket.

It seems he was only in Thailand for barely 5 days when he was busted. 

Maybe he was treading on someone else' turf? If he was distributing - I hope he spends some time in the local Thai prison (for stupidity), if he was merely using the stuff (a sign of stupidity in a foreign country like Thailand) - I hope he gets home quickly and learns from his stupidity.

[pegman]

He was given the option of doing things the easy or hard way. It was his decision to do it the brutal way. Only chance left may be to have a Thai lawyer informally  offer >$15,000 to be allowed to leave the country. That would still be a bargain. 

[jenny2017]

Perhaps he should have read some stories of some fellow countrymen...

 

   https://travel.gc.ca/travelling/health-safety/drugs/imprisoned-abroad

[Peterw42]

What is this "held against his will" rubbish ? Is there such a thing as being held voluntarily ?

Since when did being arrested, held, incarcerated etc, start being referred to as "held against your will".

Every person in jail in the world is being held against their will.

 

I got a parking ticket the other day and had to pay it "against my will".

[jenny2017]

8 minutes ago, Peterw42 said:

What is this "held against his will" rubbish ? Is there such a thing as being held voluntarily ?

Since when did being arrested, held, incarcerated etc, start being referred to as "held against your will".

Every person in jail in the world is being held against their will.

 

I got a parking ticket the other day and had to pay it "against my will".

A little wannabe general made it to THE guy in Thailand against the will of at least 97 % of Thais and one TVF member/. 

 

My wife spends too much money against my will. Too many people are in jails worldwide against their wills....

Edited January 14, 2018 by jenny2017

[MyFriend You]

18 minutes ago, bkkcanuck8 said:

Now you are being purposely a little obtuse - he could have used a formal designation like "Embassy of Canada to Thailand" but I am sure that it was completely understandable by most of us. 

Aaaah, can't a guy have a little fun once in a while??   see Jenny's post, thats where I got it, she got it from the gofundme page...............

[jenny2017]

1 minute ago, TunnelRat69 said:

Aaaah, can't a guy have a little fun once in a while??   see Jenny's post, thats where I got it, she got it from the gofundme page...............

Gofundme's fault......

[SiSePuede419]

"Canada announces plans to legalize marijuana by July 2018"

 

I assume this guy is illiterate and didn't read this last year.  Or very impatient.  Or very stupid. ?

[Paradis 58]

7 hours ago, tonray said:

How is it that so many people live long term in Thailand and never experience any sort of drama like kidnapping, or go missing, or whatever ?

 

My guess is that less than stable people come to Thailand and end up in all sorts of predicaments because their inherent behaviors are suspect to start with.

 

I hope there is a positive outcome but I doubt there is a gang of uniformed guys holding foreigners hostage for ransom.

Do not read about those jumping from balconies, usually in Pattaya.

[jenny2017]

5 minutes ago, SiSePuede419 said:

"Canada announces plans to legalize marijuana by July 2018"

 

I assume this guy is illiterate and didn't read this last year.  Or very impatient.  Or very stupid. ?

Perhaps he thought it's already July after smoking too much weed? 

 

 

Edited January 14, 2018 by jenny2017

[wvavin]

He is very likely illegally in Thailand or must have committed some form of crime. Just my thought.

[MyFriend You]

1 minute ago, wvavin said:

He is very likely illegally in Thailand or must have committed some form of crime. Just my thought.

He was only in Thailand five days on a tourist visa, and was caught with three joints of marijuana.

[The manic]

7 hours ago, BTB1977 said:

And there it is. The go fund me page set up. What a suprise!!!!!!. What a baby. Drugs, Thailand and jail. Dumbass. Hope he has a nice long stay in the monkey house. He came to thailand for drugs and sex. Here comes the sex part. 55555

What a mean, I'll spirited comment based on ignorance and malice. I suspect your misanthropy is your self loathing externalised. The war on drugs is war on the people and nobody, anywhere in the world should be harrassed, arrested or imprisoned for electing to change their consciousness.  The police, in countries, should concentrate on real serious crime.

[bkkcanuck8]

22 minutes ago, The manic said:

What a mean, I'll spirited comment based on ignorance and malice. I suspect your misanthropy is your self loathing externalised. The war on drugs is war on the people and nobody, anywhere in the world should be harrassed, arrested or imprisoned for electing to change their consciousness.  The police, in countries, should concentrate on real serious crime.

I agree that the comment was unnecessarily mean, and to be quite honest I could not care who does drugs (I have never 'done' any illegal drugs myself - if that matters one way or another).... if drugs as a recreation are important to you then the only thing to do is to stay in a country that does not care about harassing ordinary drug users etc.  (i.e. Canada and many other western countries).  There are other countries, including Thailand that has a different set of standards based on their own morals.  As such, there is no excuse to come here and get mixed up in it while here....  Now if it was merely the offence of using drugs, I hope him all the luck in getting home to Canada as soon as possible, if he was engaged in selling/distributing - then I have no sympathy for him - he should have been aware of the risks (which he took) and he will have to pay for it.  Either way he is in trouble for basically being an idiot.

[bkkcanuck8]

1 hour ago, jenny2017 said:

It's from the Gofundmepage, the whole ballgame is changing if he's smuggled pot into Thailand. 

Or was trying to buy it for the purposes of smuggling it back to Canada.

[The manic]

6 minutes ago, bkkcanuck8 said:

I agree that the comment was unnecessarily mean, and to be quite honest I could not care who does drugs (I have never 'done' any illegal drugs myself - if that matters one way or another).... if drugs as a recreation are important to you then the only thing to do is to stay in a country that does not care about harassing ordinary drug users etc.  (i.e. Canada and many other western countries).  There are other countries, including Thailand that has a different set of standards based on their own morals.  As such, there is no excuse to come here and get mixed up in it while here....  Now if it was merely the offence of using drugs, I hope him all the luck in getting home to Canada as soon as possible, if he was engaged in selling/distributing - then I have no sympathy for him - he should have been aware of the risks (which he took) and he will have to pay for it.  Either way he is in trouble for basically being an idiot.

Drugs are not important for me personally but the current drugs laws in all countries are not just impractical but  they encourage  corruption.  I remember when the adventurous travellers who came here decades ago specifically came for the drugs. The war on drugs is more destructive than the drugs themselves. 

[Shorthalfhead]

"Regardless of Shawn's decision to plead guilty, he did state in his interview that he wishes to pursue a case against the police for violation of his rights"

 

Good luck with that one !

[keithpa]

He is definitely guilty. No need for a trail. Guilty until proven innocent I say.

[Idiotabroad]

6 hours ago, Dave67 said:

Yes, he had about 3 joints on him, naive only 21. Was on Koh Tao of all places. The police played all sort of games with him and his father. I had to give them the bad news about the police and paying was the only way out. The problem is people seem to think they have rights here and there is a legal process to follow

The thing is, that there IS a legal process and people do have rights.

Typically with a marijuana bust the officers involved will tell the people that they can goto jail for 10 years and pay hundreds of thousands of baht in order to scare the person into paying a bribe, usually 50k - 200k depending on how many officers are involved.

What most people don't know that the reality of a tourist getting busted with a bit of cannabis really is a slap on the wrist. Most cases involve paying a fine of 1500-10,000 baht and they send the tourists on their way, often times not even blacklisting them.

 

The only real problem is that they can't leave the country until their court date and that can take up to 90 days I believe.

 

I have been here for over 20 years and I have had many people I know get busted with cannabis and it is the exact same process every time.

 

This kid panicked and called his friends, his friends panicked and called the media.

[mok199]

 ah yes the victim role....next it will be the '' because im black '' routine...I for one am offended as a tax paying Canadian...Thailand has enough bad press latley,now this dude is trying to drag Thailand and Canada into his swirling vortex of lies and  drama....Man up dude...you own this,not your friends ,not strangers, notThailand and definlity not Canada...

[jenny2017]

19 minutes ago, Shorthalfhead said:

"Regardless of Shawn's decision to plead guilty, he did state in his interview that he wishes to pursue a case against the police for violation of his rights"

 

Good luck with that one !

That's a bit like fighting with a windmill......

[keithpa]

2 minutes ago, mok199 said:

 ah yes the victim role....next it will be the '' because im black '' routine...I for one am offended as a tax paying Canadian...Thailand has enough bad press latley,now this dude is trying to drag Thailand and Canada into his swirling vortex of lies and  drama....Man up dude...you own this,not your friends ,not strangers, notThailand and definlity not Canada...

When was his trial?

[keithpa]

1 minute ago, jenny2017 said:

That's a bit like fighting with a windmill......

???????????????

[jenny2017]

19 minutes ago, keithpa said:

???????????????

My reply to: "Regardless of Shawn's decision to plead guilty, he did state in his interview that he wishes to pursue a case against the police for violation of his rights"

 

   Pursuing the cops for violation being a criminal doesn't make much sense. Does it? 

[Idiotabroad]

3 hours ago, buick said:

they target foreigners, skin color doesn't matter.  i've been through the police checkpoints and seen the checkpoints from elevated walkways (in bangkok).  they only stop foreigners in taxis.  never a non-taxi vehicle.  i don't know how this person was caught, maybe not at a checkpoint, but alot of non-black people are targeted regularly.

Agreed, I was pulled from a taxi on Asoke about a week ago, they thoroughly searched me and all my bags. Actually took every scrap of paper out of my wallet.

 

I am in my late 40's, white male and I was dressed in a suit at the time.

Edited January 14, 2018 by Idiotabroad

[jenny2017]

1 minute ago, Idiotabroad said:

Agreed, I was pulled from a taxi on Asoke about a week ago, they searched thoroughly searched me and all my bags. Actually took every scrap of paper out of my wallet.

 

I am in my late 40's, white male and I was dressed in a suit at the time.

But they couldn't find the little pack?

[HerbalEd]

7 hours ago, Kerryd said:

I almost reported it (the GoFindMe) already based on the BS in the news article but have been trying to find a local news article about his arrest first. No luck searching the National and Bangkok Post sites. I even tweeted the Global News reporter to see if she actually received a message from "Global Affairs Canada" acknowledging that a Canadian had been arrested in Bangkok, or if someone else told her that they had received such a message.
(Ever notice how often that "GoFundMe" pages are set up by "friends" who say they'll send the money to the person the gofundme is meant for. Apparently family members themselves aren't capable of doing it for some reason.)

Normally any time a foreigner is arrested, for pretty much any reason, it makes the papers, even if it's just a minor over-stay charge (or getting caught "working for 50 baht a day"). Pretty sure being busted for drug possession would merit a few lines of ink. 
Might try contacting Global Affairs Canada myself. 

Looks like you’re on a mission. 

[mok199]

29 minutes ago, keithpa said:

When was his trial?

im waiting for the movie.

[Idiotabroad]

4 minutes ago, jenny2017 said:

But they couldn't find the little pack?

Believe me, if I had one, they would have found it. I was seached for at least 15 minutes.

[bkkcanuck8]

2 minutes ago, mok199 said:

im waiting for the movie.

Bangkok Hilton story - done and done.... but never a Paris Hilton in the credits.