South African Woman Jailed 25 Years For Heroin Smuggling

[george]

South African woman jailed 25 years for heroin smuggling

BANGKOK: -- The Criminal Court Thursday sentenced a South African woman to 25 years in jail and fine of Bt1 million after convicting her in attempting to smuggle 499 grammes of heroin out of the kingdom to China.

Pendu Montando Evidence, 25, was arrested at the Suvarnabhumi International airport on November 16 last year before boarding a flight of Thai Air Asia to Shenzhen. Authorities found 48 bags of heroin hidden on her.

-- The Nation 2009-06-18

Original story:

South African Woman Arrested Trying To Smuggle Out 3 Million Baht Of Heroin

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/South-Africa...ug-t223336.html

[marshbags]

My guess is she got off lucky.

If she had landed in China and been found with this on her, it could have been the ultimate penalty.

marshbags

[marsteele]

Thailand has gone soft. 25 years to easy on her what is wrong can't they afford the rope.

[pattaya_girl]

And probably be out in 10, maybe sooner.

[webfact]

My guess is she got off lucky.

If she had landed in China and been found with this on her, it could have been the ultimate penalty.

marshbags

could have been the ultimate penalty in Thailand too. Luck was on her side!

[jackdanielsesq]

I read somewhere that Africans are soft targets - that they are most likely to commit the crime and because there is no rule of law in their own country, and presume that Thailand is equally lax. There is plenty of free board at the Hilton. Serves her right.

That is one huge haul of contraband - where did you say she stashed it all?!

BR>Jack

[garthmar]

Thailand has gone soft. 25 years to easy on her what is wrong can't they afford the rope.

In this day and age we would hope to have evolved from the sentencing of the death penalty.

[zorro1]

499 grams ? sounds like a a range to me and maybe she was just under. Shame really , half a kilo of that stuff will send hundreds to their graves and many more family's destroyed. Oh well she will have time to reflect next 25 slow and miserable years

Outside of politics we need Thaksin to handle this scum. Thais cant afford the jails to take care of this vermon. Didnt he do a great job with yabba dealers!

[Luxius]

She wasn't lucky, the ultimate penalty would have been best case scenario. I wouldn't want to spend ten years+ in a Thai prison, anyway.

[mjperry]

South African woman jailed 25 years for heroin smuggling

BANGKOK: -- The Criminal Court Thursday sentenced a South African woman to 25 years in jail and fine of Bt1 million after convicting her in attempting to smuggle 499 grammes of heroin out of the kingdom to China.

Pendu Montando Evidence, 25, was arrested at the Suvarnabhumi International airport on November 16 last year before boarding a flight of Thai Air Asia to Shenzhen. Authorities found 48 bags of heroin hidden on her.

-- The Nation 2009-06-18

Original story:

South African Woman Arrested Trying To Smuggle Out 3 Million Baht Of Heroin

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/South-Africa...ug-t223336.html

The original story says she was carrying 657 grams, wonder what happened to the missing extra?

Martin

[JRinger]

Thailand has gone soft. 25 years to easy on her what is wrong can't they afford the rope.

In this day and age we would hope to have evolved from the sentencing of the death penalty.

In the name of what ?, business, profits, etc. What will it cost the taxpayers to keep her in the Hilton for 25 years...ok, probably not much although in the states, on average it takes about 50k USD a year to 'care' for one inmate and many prisons are private companies.....

...agreed, this fool was trying to smuggle a nasty drug for profit & fee plus airfare.....she would definitely not be classified as a humanist, so let her do her time. But what about convicted murderers & rapists who claim no innocence, spend years in prison, paroled and commit the same or worse crime and it's back to the slammer @ $50,000 a year to Mr & Mrs taxpayer.....Many people in jail for minor offenses but the budget needs to be increased every year so more people need to be arrested.........this was before the financial meltdown.....the Governor of California told voters if they didn't vote for his agenda then he would have no choice but to release 30,000 convicted criminals onto the streets without funds to pay the 50,000 dollars a year per man.....that's a savings of 1.5 billion dollars that taxpayers are responsible for.........(sorry for rambling), just my 2 cents.......nothing wrong with eliminating someone who has conscientiously ended someone else s life.......most especially, re-peat offenders..........if she pays enough to the right people she won't be in jail long

[sprq]

What a bunch of dim-witted censorious moralists!! You actually seem to think that the mere carrying of drugs is evil, and that taking them is terrible, and that this poor woman deserves this sentence. You obviously think that prohibition is sensible and right.

The "war on drugs" is an idiocy that has created most of the criminality in the world today and cost society untold billions and untold misery. Drugs should be decriminalised and state-controlled, with support and care for addicts. That policy would be an immense improvement on the current state of affairs worldwide (except in a few enlightened European countries), costing the whole lot of us far far less in taxes and suffering.

People who support the current drastic penalisation of drug-takers and drug-traders are simply out to lunch.

[FatherF]

What a bunch of dim-witted censorious moralists!! You actually seem to think that the mere carrying of drugs is evil, and that taking them is terrible, and that this poor woman deserves this sentence. You obviously think that prohibition is sensible and right.

The "war on drugs" is an idiocy that has created most of the criminality in the world today and cost society untold billions and untold misery. Drugs should be decriminalised and state-controlled, with support and care for addicts. That policy would be an immense improvement on the current state of affairs worldwide (except in a few enlightened European countries), costing the whole lot of us far far less in taxes and suffering.

People who support the current drastic penalisation of drug-takers and drug-traders are simply out to lunch.

whether I, or, for that matter, anyone else "support the current drastic penalisation of drug-takers and drug-traders" is somewhat academic, as at the moment, the law is quite clear, or would you advocate anarchy as well?

FF

[spongeman]

I read somewhere that Africans are soft targets - that they are most likely to commit the crime and because there is no rule of law in their own country, and presume that Thailand is equally lax. There is plenty of free board at the Hilton. Serves her right.

That is one huge haul of contraband - where did you say she stashed it all?!

BR>Jack

D'ont ask...........

[zorro1]

Just thought they all had pot bellies, am I wrong?

[Darkling]

What a bunch of dim-witted censorious moralists!! You actually seem to think that the mere carrying of drugs is evil, and that taking them is terrible, and that this poor woman deserves this sentence. You obviously think that prohibition is sensible and right.

The "war on drugs" is an idiocy that has created most of the criminality in the world today and cost society untold billions and untold misery. Drugs should be decriminalised and state-controlled, with support and care for addicts. That policy would be an immense improvement on the current state of affairs worldwide (except in a few enlightened European countries), costing the whole lot of us far far less in taxes and suffering.

People who support the current drastic penalisation of drug-takers and drug-traders are simply out to lunch.

Quite right, give them all they want for free. On the condition they have to take it all in one go.

Pity we haven't got pol pot in control, he would have you topped as well.

[ifeltsweet]

What a bunch of dim-witted censorious moralists!! You actually seem to think that the mere carrying of drugs is evil, and that taking them is terrible, and that this poor woman deserves this sentence. You obviously think that prohibition is sensible and right.

The "war on drugs" is an idiocy that has created most of the criminality in the world today and cost society untold billions and untold misery. Drugs should be decriminalised and state-controlled, with support and care for addicts. That policy would be an immense improvement on the current state of affairs worldwide (except in a few enlightened European countries), costing the whole lot of us far far less in taxes and suffering.

People who support the current drastic penalisation of drug-takers and drug-traders are simply out to lunch.

if only more people would understand this, this world would have been much better off. look at Holland, some drugs are legal there but it doesn't mean that people are all going to be addicts. No it's the opposite, Holland has less addicts than most of other countries. Because their government concentrates on educating people about these drugs and not jailing people. The other factor that plays in is that when drugs are freely available, u don't want them as much as if it was something hard to get. In any case it is our own decision to take drugs or not, some people really enjoy it, some people kill themselves. That's why FatherF noted correctly that drugs shud be state-controlled, with support and care for addicts.

[StevieH]

Thailand has gone soft. 25 years to easy on her what is wrong can't they afford the rope.

In this day and age we would hope to have evolved from the sentencing of the death penalty.

In the name of what ?, business, profits, etc. What will it cost the taxpayers to keep her in the Hilton for 25 years...ok, probably not much although in the states, on average it takes about 50k USD a year to 'care' for one inmate and many prisons are private companies.....

...agreed, this fool was trying to smuggle a nasty drug for profit & fee plus airfare.....she would definitely not be classified as a humanist, so let her do her time. But what about convicted murderers & rapists who claim no innocence, spend years in prison, paroled and commit the same or worse crime and it's back to the slammer @ $50,000 a year to Mr & Mrs taxpayer.....Many people in jail for minor offenses but the budget needs to be increased every year so more people need to be arrested.........this was before the financial meltdown.....the Governor of California told voters if they didn't vote for his agenda then he would have no choice but to release 30,000 convicted criminals onto the streets without funds to pay the 50,000 dollars a year per man.....that's a savings of 1.5 billion dollars that taxpayers are responsible for.........(sorry for rambling), just my 2 cents.......nothing wrong with eliminating someone who has conscientiously ended someone else s life.......most especially, re-peat offenders..........if she pays enough to the right people she won't be in jail long

it's called societal evolution and is about evolving as a species. state-sponsored murder is not a particularly giant leap forward for the human race. taxes and costs are the price you pay for having a society that has evolved beyond caveman thinking and it's supposed to be known as 'civilisation'.

[thurien]

That is one huge haul of contraband - where did you say she stashed it all?!

guess she has an extra-ordinarily big purse...

[Callanbkk]

Outside of politics we need Thaksin to handle this scum. Thais cant afford the jails to take care of this vermon. Didnt he do a great job with yabba dealers!

Hopefully your joking...He did a terrible job with the yaba dealers and killed thousands of innocent people. The government set quotas of numbers to kill in different provinces, so if the police didn't meet them, they just got a few more people and shot them. It was a terrible thing he did, and I'm sure he took many more lives than yaba ever has.

[khunopie]

At a Jamaica airport authorities were searching Oprah. When they lifted up her skirt they found 40 pounds of "crack"

[bkkdawg]

Welcome to the Hilton!

[jackdanielsesq]

I am waiting for Big Al und das Polar Bears to come wading in on this diatribe any moment now.

We have gotten just about everyone else involved here. Next is psycho-evaluation to see if she was abused as a child?!

Chuck a couple priest or two in whilst ya here!

Does nobody have any discipline these days?!

Why do we always have to let these home/family/community wreckers off with a wrist-smack?!

Bring back the public guillotine, I say.

BR>Jack

[Texpat]

We can only hope more planes carrying drug smuggling scum around asia get diverted to Laos.

They to drug scum right.

[skiman1]

What a bunch of dim-witted censorious moralists!! You actually seem to think that the mere carrying of drugs is evil, and that taking them is terrible, and that this poor woman deserves this sentence. You obviously think that prohibition is sensible and right.

The "war on drugs" is an idiocy that has created most of the criminality in the world today and cost society untold billions and untold misery. Drugs should be decriminalised and state-controlled, with support and care for addicts. That policy would be an immense improvement on the current state of affairs worldwide (except in a few enlightened European countries), costing the whole lot of us far far less in taxes and suffering.

People who support the current drastic penalisation of drug-takers and drug-traders are simply out to lunch.

you are a clown

[jackdanielsesq]

Amen, brother!

BR>Jack

They to drug scum right.

[annacleg]

I read somewhere that Africans are soft targets - that they are most likely to commit the crime and because there is no rule of law in their own country, and presume that Thailand is equally lax. There is plenty of free board at the Hilton. Serves her right.

That is one huge haul of contraband - where did you say she stashed it all?!

BR>Jack

D'ont ask...........

Jack

What utter crap!! And where exactly did you read this precious bit of info???? or have you just opened the second barrel!!

That we have Laws against drugs in S.A. is NOT A MYTH!! and these people are NOT soft targets, they are just plain stupid, and probably believe that they will not be caught!! (Sangoma muti is not so effective outside of our borders) -

If you're guilty of the crime, you have to make the time!!

-------- Fancy being brave enough to take chances like that with a name like EVIDENCE!! --------------

[jackdanielsesq]

[wrecker]

I might be the only one, but I am far more interested in the reasons why someone does something like this than the punishment. Punishments are just a vindication of a society that has no answer to the problem of drugs use anyhow. outrageous punishments never stopped ten more smugglers from trying because they might have made the reward higher.

[goatfarmer]

What a bunch of dim-witted censorious moralists!! You actually seem to think that the mere carrying of drugs is evil, and that taking them is terrible, and that this poor woman deserves this sentence. You obviously think that prohibition is sensible and right.

The "war on drugs" is an idiocy that has created most of the criminality in the world today and cost society untold billions and untold misery. Drugs should be decriminalised and state-controlled, with support and care for addicts. That policy would be an immense improvement on the current state of affairs worldwide (except in a few enlightened European countries), costing the whole lot of us far far less in taxes and suffering.

People who support the current drastic penalisation of drug-takers and drug-traders are simply out to lunch.

At least there's one voice of reason here