Crowdfunding campaign launched for six Thai woman jailed in Ethiopia after being duped to smuggle cocaine

[webfact]

Crowdfunding campaign launched for six Thai woman jailed in Ethiopia after being duped to smuggle cocaine

 

Picture: Facebook "Thailand's Forgotten Girls"

 

A fund has been set up online claiming to help six Thai women who were allegedly duped into going to Ethiopia then arrested after cocaine was found in their luggage as they headed back to Thailand from the airport in Addis Ababa. 

 

They face long prison terms in the war torn country. 

 

It has been claimed that the six - two of whom hail from holiday island Koh Phangan where one has a husband - were tricked by "two very pretty, well dressed and fun loving" Thai women in Bangkok. 

 

A "gogetfunding" page has now reached 19,688 baht after having been set up by a man called Jason King. 

 

Thaivisa is in the process of trying to verify the story and has contacted "Thailand's Forgotten Girls" on Facebook for comment. 

 

The story hit Thailand's print media last month though its veracity was questioned. It was being investigated for truth by the Thai authorities.

 

Tanee Sangrat a spokesman at the Thai ministry of foreign affairs said they were currently trying to verify the information by investigating the case. 

 

The full text of the appeal on the funding page is below: 

 

Ever wondered what it's like in a prison? How about the worst one in the world? The unbelievably inhuman living conditions and suffering that many prison systems put their prisoners through. And in some places how it is not only hell to live through, but how it is certain to scar you for life.

 

Six Thai girls (two of them Koh Phangan locals) are in the gravest, desperate need of our help. (Their names and details are at the bottom of this post). They’re enduring this right now in a far away land, frightened, lost and basically alone.

 

They need help just to survive their current horrific situation and they need help to try and get out of it one day if possible. They also need help to find the gang who took them away from home and coerced them into involvement in crimes they knew nothing about but have now landed them maybe forever in prison abroad.

 

These young Thai girls, two of whom many of you will know as they live and have family in Koh Phangan, along with four others are in a hellish and frightening situation with currently very little hope ahead.

 

Like the opening words in the book Damage Done – “imagine the worst day you’ve ever had. Now multiply that by 1000” and you’ll have an idea of what they’re going through.

 

You can only speculate on how the gang managed to lure them into a situation that many people reading will think only fools could fall for. And you might be right. They were foolish. They’re also very naïve. Easily impressed. Above all they are all poor. That’s exactly the kind of people this organized criminal gang look for.

 

They lure them with the offer of excitement and adventure. When they have them where they want them they use fear and intimidation to finish the job.

 

This post contains photos of our girls, their ID cards, it contains photos of some of the charges from the courts that they now face. You will see photos of them as they were before all this happened. Also you will see photos of some of the suspects involved in ensnaring them and then forcing them into their fate. We are offering a large reward for information leading to their arrest.

 

These girls were essentially taken from Bangkok after meeting and being befriended by two very pretty, well dressed and fun-loving Thai girls. They were wined and dined and dazzled with a few days of the champagne lifestyle. It’s the sort of stuff that many of us take for granted as normal life.

 

They were then introduced to some more of their friends and offered more of the same. Undoubtedly there was the offer of financial gain and a glimpse of the highlife. We can only speculate on that.

 

None of them had ever left Thailand before. In fact one of our girls was issued her first ever passport the day before they flew, on the 17th of November 2020, to that Mecca of fun, excitement and adventure. Addis Ababa in Ethiopia. In the middle of a violent civil war.

 

Once there things changed very quickly for them. Please remember that these girls speak very little English. They certainly don’t speak good English or speak it well enough to get by abroad. They had no money on them.

 

They were left alone by their now captors for four days in a room without food or water too scared to venture out into a strange African city in a war zone. They thought they’d gone there to party with rich cool dudes they’d met, like the ones in Bangkok. They were going to party with them and come home and show off to their friends the cool new clothes they had bought with their earning. They would splash out on presents for their kids and family.

 

Instead, after four days alone their “captors” appeared and took them out for the day sightseeing around Addis Ababa. After four days alone and starving even you might accept that offer. So off they went for the day. Leaving their possessions behind in their room with their luggage.

 

A day or two after this fun day out it was time to go home. How happy they must have been to be getting out of there. At Bole International Airport about to fly home they must have been skipping through the airport in anticipation of arriving back to Thailand where their friends and family were.

 

Except that isn’t going to happen to these girls. Not for many years. For one, maybe never.

 

Their joy soon turned to terror when they were stopped. You can maybe guess the rest. The luggage of all six girls had been professionally packed and the the linings were filled with cocaine. It easily passed any visible inspection but didn’t pass the X-Ray machines at Bole airport.

 

Ethiopia has no Thai Embassy. So after their arrest these girls had nobody to call. They didn’t call home for a further 10 days. Their spirits crushed and in complete panic a tearful call eventually came through from Sim to her boyfriend here in Koh Phangan. And in the 5 mins call between sobbing uncontrollably she explained as much as she could.

 

Since then a fantastic lawyer has been hired to assist her. She and the others have been to court. They’re in serious trouble.

 

Requests have been made to the Ethiopian police to look into the girls’ story and try to find the men involved. A very clear photo of one has been provided via the lawyer. He has been extremely kind and taken all the girls’ food in prison. He has also agreed to pass messages back and forth for all of them.

 

We have photos of some of those letters for you to see. Most of their families are poor farmers from Isaan who live day to day. So without the help provided by us so far they would have no contact with the outside world.

 

We hope that this story becomes public. It may prevent this happening to others. Because this gang will not stop and will already be finding their next victims. And for Thai families out there it could be your daughter one day.

 

So please share it if you feel like doing so. Get in touch if you recognize any of the suspects in the photos. We have set up a funding page (link at bottom). Please be generous if you can.

 

We want to provide all of them with legal assistance. They need blankets because it is very cold there, especially now. They need food which isn’t provided. They will need female hygiene products and probably as important as anything else we need to make it possible for them to contact their families and loved ones as regularly as possible.

 

To repeat, these girls, apart from one, have no legal assistance except for some help from the kindly lawyer hired to defend Nipa Sopa (Sim). When they next go to court on 10th January, they will have nobody to speak up for them.

 

They will have no official interpreter. They have no money for food in prison (again money has been provided via Sim’s lawyer for them all to eat), they have no way of defending themselves unless we get involved. They can’t call home. They can’t write a letter directly to their families.

 

 

-- © Copyright Thai Visa News 2021-02-17

 

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[Mr Meeseeks]

Ministerial posts await.

[kingofthemountain]

From my point of view and reading the OP post this story doesn't make any sense

The only thing making sense is the gofundme, hence the ''fantastic and dramatic'' story

to motivate more donations

so i am waiting that Thai visa and the Thai authorities do the basics verifications

about the veracity of the whole thing, it couldn't take more than few hours\days

i hope to read an update here soon

[tifino]

 

mislead... into thinking they were going there for $$ex 

 

 

which is now the 'last' thing they'll get (willingly) in the clink 

[bluesofa]

1 hour ago, webfact said:

six Thai woman jailed in Ethiopia after being duped to smuggle cocaine

If that's true, they obviously don't have a single braincell between them.

[Deserted]

This sounds more like a scam than a true story. And if that picture of them then it should be changed to six men rather than six women, or more to the point, six trannys. 

[Dart12]

What about the poor henchman that packed the bags?  No gofundme for him?? 

Surely he has lost an eye ball, maybe a hand or two for using his 1980 smuggle plan and losing a few hundred thousand of product.

[Deserted]

Throughout the article ther are numerous references to 'have no money' 'setting up a fund', offers to help. I think this is most likely a scam. 

[Justgrazing]

1 hour ago, webfact said:

six Thai woman jailed in Ethiopia after being duped to smuggle cocaine

 

Which is exactly what Thailand does to any foreigners caught drug trafficking to or from their country .. the duped excuse is the first get out they all use ..

The price is on the ticket if you choose to get involved in these things .. 

[Dagfinnur Traustason]

Duped?! Yes, of course the cute little innocent young women didn´t know anything about the drugs.

 

They are not lost in an African jail. They are put there for drug smuggling. Exactly the same that Thailand does to people that smuggle drugs and get caught here.

[CharlieH]

 A lot more to this than is reported for sure.

 

Those little "innocents" look anything but that to me.

GREED & Working girls fall for the old scam is more likely.

[from the home of CC]

1 hour ago, kingofthemountain said:

From my point of view and reading the OP post this story doesn't make any sense

The only thing making sense is the gofundme, hence the ''fantastic and dramatic'' story

to motivate more donations

so i am waiting that Thai visa and the Thai authorities do the basics verifications

about the veracity of the whole thing, it couldn't take more than few hours\days

i hope to read an update here soon

waiting for 'thai visa' to do basic verifications? hope you're a young man!

[kingofthemountain]

53 minutes ago, from the home of CC said:

waiting for 'thai visa' to do basic verifications? hope you're a young man!

From the OP

''Thaivisa is in the process of trying to verify the story and has contacted "Thailand's Forgotten Girls" on Facebook for comment. 

 

The story hit Thailand's print media last month though its veracity was questioned. It was being investigated for truth by the Thai authorities.

 

Tanee Sangrat a spokesman at the Thai ministry of foreign affairs said they were currently trying to verify the information by investigating the case. ''

 

That's a lot of people trying to sort out if it's a scam or a real story

(I have my own idea, there are a lot of flaws in the whole story, but i could be wrong)

the facebook page is running since january, and it's now in a lot of medias

so i expect to have some update here on this topic soon or later

 

However you could be right and i am not holding my breath

[overherebc]

1 hour ago, Deserted said:

Throughout the article ther are numerous references to 'have no money' 'setting up a fund', offers to help. I think this is most likely a scam. 

Only  'most likely' ?

[Nsp64]

Fly to ethiopoa to go and party after having partied in Bangkok.......just a load of freeloading, workshy hookers then.

Bad luck girls, suck it up and do the time.

[BangkokReady]

Sounds like a scam.  Way too many weird circumstances.  Also written like as drama story, laid on thick to try and garner sympathy.

 

They somehow have enough money for a lawyer, food and toiletries for six women, a large reward for information about the "scammers", yet they need to do a gofundme...

 

And doesn't the story start off with a husband, then change to a boyfriend?

 

Really sucks that so many people are out to con others in these difficult times.

[HOAX]

Duped? Come on...

 

The husband didn't for a moment question why his wife would suddenly go to a poverty stricken African country and just leave her one-year old child?

[Albert Zweistein]

6 hours ago, Nsp64 said:

Fly to ethiopoa to go and party after having partied in Bangkok.......just a load of freeloading, workshy hookers then.

Bad luck girls, suck it up and do the time.

Damn right.

[kingofthemountain]

11 hours ago, webfact said:

They were left alone by their now captors for four days in a room without food or water too scared to venture out into a strange African city in a war zone.

Come on now

we all know as a fact that a Thai girl is unable to stay even 1 day without eating

anyway nobody, Thai or not, could manage to survive 4 days without something to drink

the maximum is 3 days, after that you are dead. 

 

Some basic researchs on internet show that Addis Ababa isn't a war zone at all.

In fact the city is pretty sure, There is actually a guerilla in a border zone, hundreds of kilometers

from the capital and the city isn't impacted at all.

 

There are dozens of others 'flaws in the whole story

it should be too long to make the list here.

 

Seriously i don't even understand why Thai visa give a public audience to this

without waiting the result of the Thai ministry of foreign affairs investigation

 

[Soikhaonoiken]

If this is a genuine case,  which I doubt it is,  it should not be a go fund me issue, It should be up to the Thai Foreign Office to intervein,   Oh I forgot were in Thailand.... ????

[donnacha]

I would imagine that a lot of unemployed bargirls, barboys, and, in this case, ladyboys could be easily talked into doing something this dumb after a year of boredom and no money.

I notice that many ex-bargirls who get married and settle in the West end up with gambling habits because they become addicted to the unpredictable ups-and-down of bar life. Thailand, right now, must be rich pickings for any gang recruiting unwitting mules.

 

[Destiny1990]

Where is her African husband ?

[mtls2005]

Future Deputy PMs.

 

[ChipButty]

Thai version of Banged up Abroad coming soon

[bluesofa]

37 minutes ago, ChipButty said:

Thai version of Banged up Abroad coming soon

Without 'up' in the title.

[hotchilli]

18 hours ago, webfact said:

A fund has been set up online claiming to help six Thai women who were allegedly duped into going to Ethiopia then arrested after cocaine was found in their luggage as they headed back to Thailand from the airport in Addis Ababa.

Yeah ok, they didn't know anything.

Girl to boyfriend "hi honey, just popping over to Ethiopia for a couple of days, should be back at the weekend" ???

[ChipButty]

5 minutes ago, hotchilli said:

Yeah ok, they didn't know anything.

Girl to boyfriend "hi honey, just popping over to Ethiopia for a couple of days, should be back at the weekend" ???

where is that he said

[Xonax]

If you do the crime, also be prepared to do the time!

[Pique Dard]

19 hours ago, webfact said:

Thailand's Forgotten Girls"

scam! period

[ChipButty]

I was wondering if Ethiopia has the death sentence? For drugs