Woman Charged With Importing 880g Heroin into Australia from Thailand

[peter991]

Woman charged with importing 880g heroin

[

i]Monday Feb 18 07:00 AEDT[/i]

Police have arrested a woman for allegedly smuggling almost 900 grams of heroin in internally concealed packages.

Australian Federal Police (AFP) said the 39-year-old Australian woman was stopped by customs officers on a flight from Thailand to Sydney on Thursday.

She produced two internally concealed packages containing white powder, believed to be heroin, the AFP said.

The woman was taken to hospital, where a medical examination recovered 165 heroin packages totalling about 880 grams.

She has been charged with importing a border-controlled drug and is due to appear at Sydney Magistrates Court on Monday.

Source: National Nine News

Peter

[sbk]

Moving it to the News Clippings forum.

///MOVED///

[sriracha john]

Australia busts heroin smuggler from Thailand

Sydney - Police have arrested an Australian woman they say tried to smuggled almost 900 grammes of heroin from Thailand in internally concealed packages. Australian Federal Police said the 39-year-old woman was stopped by customs officers on a flight from Thailand to Sydney last Thursday, the Australian Associated Press (AAP) reported on Monday. She produced two internally concealed packages containing white powder, believed to be heroin, the AFP said. The woman was taken to hospital, where a medical examination recovered 165 heroin packages totalling about 880 grams.

Continued here:

http://www.bangkokpost.com/breaking_news/b...s.php?id=125989

[sriracha john]

Woman charged with importing heroin

Police have arrested a woman for allegedly smuggling almost 900 grams of heroin in internally concealed packages.

Australian Federal Police (AFP) said the 39-year-old Australian woman was stopped by customs officers on a flight from Thailand to Sydney on Thursday.

She produced two internally concealed packages containing white powder, believed to be heroin, police said.

The woman was taken to hospital, where a medical examination recovered 165 heroin packages totalling about 880 grams.

She has been charged with importing a border-controlled drug and is due to appear at Sydney Magistrates Court today.

- AAP

Edited February 18, 2008 by sriracha john

[donna]

silly duffer.

[peter991]

My main thought is she is lucky she was picked up in Australia instead of Thailand.

Why do people do this? My guess is it's not the first time she has been a drug mule.

Peter

[BigSnake]

Lady wanted to get rich quick, she will now have some hard time to figure how to do better next time.

[geriatrickid]

Desperate people do desperate things. One just wonders at people's stupidity otherwise.

[wasabi]

internally I assume means she swallowed bags of heroin and produced means took a dump to reveal what was going on inside.

[advice]

internally I assume means she swallowed bags of heroin and produced means took a dump to reveal what was going on inside.

maybe?

or................

[bruceboy]

For this kind of offense in the down under land, what is the punishment?

[jingjoe]

For this kind of offense in the down under land, what is the punishment?

Too many variables.

First Offence + compelling mitigation (for need, not for greed etc.) = 2 years actual imprisonment.

7 years would be about average.

I'm quite prepared to be corrected.

[Lorin]

For this kind of offense in the down under land, what is the punishment?

Too many variables.

First Offence + compelling mitigation (for need, not for greed etc.) = 2 years actual imprisonment.

7 years would be about average.

I'm quite prepared to be corrected.

I hope for her indeed, in Thailand for that quantity she will serve life time.

[Briggsy]

Do we have a name yet?

[naklang]

internally I assume means she swallowed bags of heroin and produced means took a dump to reveal what was going on inside.

maybe?

or................

Yeah, customs say it's pretty amazing how much baggage can be concealed there. Certainly so after a few sprogs. And to think people inject that into their veins??? Better cook it REAL good just in case the packages leak. She's probably been doing this for a while and got ratted out by a former associate.

[suricate]

I've read about people doing this . The heroin is placed in ballons and swallowed. Sometimes the ballons break and it can be bye, bye.

[dr_Pat_Pong]

My main thought is she is lucky she was picked up in Australia instead of Thailand.

Why do people do this? My guess is it's not the first time she has been a drug mule.

Peter

Very lucky indeed.

[david96]

For this kind of offense in the down under land, what is the punishment?

Too many variables.

First Offence + compelling mitigation (for need, not for greed etc.) = 2 years actual imprisonment.

7 years would be about average.

I'm quite prepared to be corrected.

Up to 20 years if smuggling or trafficking and convicted by an Australian court. She can not use the standard excuse that she was not aware that there were drugs in her possession.

[Payboy]

She can not use the standard excuse that she was not aware that there were drugs in her possession.

yeah, that one applies only when aussies are caught trafficking in bali...

[john b good]

silly duffer.

Yes it is a pity that they don't still have the death penalty in Australia

[gunnyd]

silly duffer.

Yes it is a pity that they don't still have the death penalty in Australia

The real pity is that the politician's and the general public in so many countries consider the use of illicit drugs a crime at all. Legalize it, regulate it, tax the living bejeezus out of it, and then you can eliminate 70-90% of the prison population in most western countries.

The death penalty for drug trafficking is way overboard. It's bad enough here in the US where we have mandatory minimum sentences for drug offenders. That is the reason we have one of the world's largest prison populations. Yet in most SEA countries the penalty of death is routinely given out to drug traffickers.

You legalize drugs and eliminate the criminal element from the drug trade. You regulate it, and you cut the overdose and poisoning rates to nearly nil. And studies in Western Europe e.g. The Netherlands, Holland, Switzerland, etc. have shown that the rate of hard core drug abusers dramatically decrease when you decriminalize drugs. It is a social and health problem and should be treated as such.

The "War on Drugs" in the US has done nothing but create more criminals and nothing to lower the rate of drug abuse. Also there is that human instinct to try something just because it is illegal. Prohibition of alcohol failed miserably in the US, and I am flummoxed by the rational that if we make the punishments more harsh it will slow or stop the flow of narcotics. Just my 2 satang.

GunnyD

[Johpa]

I've read about people doing this . The heroin is placed in ballons and swallowed. Sometimes the ballons break and it can be bye, bye.

For a graphic depiction of this process I recommend seeing the film Maria Full of Grace. It is, by the way, a great film with an incredibly beautiful leading woman. The drug depicted in the film is cocaine, but the smuggling method is the same.

[howtoescape]

The real pity is that the politician's and the general public in so many countries consider the use of illicit drugs a crime at all. Legalize it, regulate it, tax the living bejeezus out of it, and then you can eliminate 70-90% of the prison population in most western countries.

Having tried the majority of drugs (in some cases only once) there are certain ones that can never be legalised decriminalised, smack and crack being the most obvious ones.

I know for a fact i wouldnt want anyone i know taking them as they destroy the majority of people lifes no matter how strong willed you think you are.

However LSD, Ecstacy and weed should be legalised as people grow out of these eventually, and i dont want to pay tax for someone who is caught with a few kilos or large amounts of any of them. And i know many people who have gone insane at a young age through taking the above, but such is life.

[Maizefarmer]

silly duffer.

Yes it is a pity that they don't still have the death penalty in Australia

The real pity is that the politician's and the general public in so many countries consider the use of illicit drugs a crime at all. Legalize it, regulate it, tax the living bejeezus out of it, and then you can eliminate 70-90% of the prison population in most western countries.

The death penalty for drug trafficking is way overboard. It's bad enough here in the US where we have mandatory minimum sentences for drug offenders. That is the reason we have one of the world's largest prison populations. Yet in most SEA countries the penalty of death is routinely given out to drug traffickers.

You legalize drugs and eliminate the criminal element from the drug trade. You regulate it, and you cut the overdose and poisoning rates to nearly nil. And studies in Western Europe e.g. The Netherlands, Holland, Switzerland, etc. have shown that the rate of hard core drug abusers dramatically decrease when you decriminalize drugs. It is a social and health problem and should be treated as such.

The "War on Drugs" in the US has done nothing but create more criminals and nothing to lower the rate of drug abuse. Also there is that human instinct to try something just because it is illegal. Prohibition of alcohol failed miserably in the US, and I am flummoxed by the rational that if we make the punishments more harsh it will slow or stop the flow of narcotics. Just my 2 satang.

GunnyD

yes gunnyd - you will take the rug out from under the criminality that has developed around the outlawing of drugs, but on balance as you yourself have admitted, the faliure to regulate drug distribution and usage will not occur by way of legalising the stuff. In fact it is that very faliure to enforce existsing regulations that demonstrate the problems that will arise with legalisation. In short the deaths modern society is experiancing now aday with alcohol and drug abuse, will over time become comparitively small in the face of drug usage - and it will because of failures to regulate production, consumption and distribution.

If the authorities can successfully implement and demonstrate policies that control the distribution and usage of tobacco and alcohol, then I think they may well be able to legalise and control other drugs - but untill they can show this is possible one thing is a dead certainty with the legalisation of other dugs: ever growing year on year out figures relating to deaths caused by drug usage.

And to put this in its correct context, if tobacco and/or alcohol has just being invented over the last 25 years, there are some good theories and arguments to suggest that governments would now be trying to ban both because of the deaths they cause - and these are both legal.

In summary I beleive banning is on balance the lessor of the 2 evils.