Australian Jailed For Life In Thailand

[CrossBones]

Id rather have the death sentence!

[Paul123456]

Australian jailed for life in Thailand

Andrew Hood pleaded guilty to the crime.

(Reuters: Sukree Sukplang, file photo)

BANGKOK: -- An Australian man who confessed to trying to smuggle three kilograms of heroin out of Thailand has been sentenced to life in jail.

Police arrested Andrew Hood, 37, in early December last year as he tried to leave Bangkok airport for Sydney.

During Hood's trial earlier this month, two police officers gave evidence and showed photographs of a number of packages taped to his stomach and legs.

The packages contained heroin worth about $500,000.

When he was first detained, Hood told reporters he attempted to smuggle the drugs for the money.

Hood's feet were chained as he stood in the court as the verdict was read.

The judge told him he was due a death sentence, but his confession meant he was given a jail term instead.

Outside the court Hood told reporters he was disappointed with the life sentence.

Thai authorities have issued an arrest warrant for the 34-year-old Australian who was with Hood at the time he was arrested, but who escaped.

-- abc.net.au 2009-08-05

Excellent

[CHINWA]

It's disappointing that someone hauling smack out of the Kingdom gets life, but farang murderers here often get a only few years and serial pedophiles are frequently released so the police can extort them again and again.

It's true. Most sex ofenders / pedophiles are arrested again 3 days after being released (as shown on the news)... how many children are we going to see with their lives messed up or dead until some government change these laws. It seems that the law is always on the wrong side in thailand. To catch a mule is easy...

[kusie]

:angry:do the crime do the time - he got what he deserved!Hope this is all over the press in Australia so others thinking they can make a quick $$$ will may be rethink!

[jalansanitwong]

Execution is now by lethal injection. What was this silly fool thinking??? Australia's airports have some of the toughest security measures in the world.They've even made a TV series about it. He never saw the show??? I dont believe it. Every passenger coming off a flight from Asia or Sth America must walk past one of the little sniffer dogs in the baggage hall. Impossible to avoid them because officials are watching you. He was never ever going to get through. Zero chance particularly a flight from Bangkok which is probably the NO 1 watch flight for customs officials. Incredible.

[eirikur3]

Outside the court Hood told reporters he was disappointed with the life sentence.

I suppose he would have preferred the death sentence.

Can we get a petition going for a death sentence?? We could probably get 50,000,000 signatures easily.

It surprises me endlessly, that there are people that still believe it is for them to play God.

[TAWP]

It's true. Most sex ofenders / pedophiles are arrested again 3 days after being released (as shown on the news)... how many children are we going to see with their lives messed up or dead until some government change these laws. It seems that the law is always on the wrong side in thailand. To catch a mule is easy...

What on earth have you been drinking?

Not one single suspected child-fiddler, as reported here on TV, has ever been arrested a mere 3 days later after being released and then went back to do the same of more.

Are you referring to some single arcane case and trying to pretend it is some kind of norm?

[john b good]

Outside the court Hood told reporters he was disappointed with the life sentence.

I suppose he would have preferred the death sentence.

I am disappointed with the life sentence too.

If all the evidence was for real and he did the deed they should throw away the key

[ayayay]

It amazes me that with all the life sentences handed out, fully covered by the media, that fools in full knowledge of the conditions in Thai prisons still take a chance with their futures when most have the safety net of a welfare system back home. I wonder if the success rate is so high that most mules make it through and they

Westerners don´t think the same way as regular people

Edited August 5, 2009 by ayayay

[skorchio]

It amazes me that with all the life sentences handed out, fully covered by the media, that fools in full knowledge of the conditions in Thai prisons still take a chance with their futures when most have the safety net of a welfare system back home. I wonder if the success rate is so high that most mules make it through and they consider it a safe bet. Junkies numbed beyond repair, I can understand, but the rest. Madness beyond belief.

Regards Bojo

my exact sentiments - the risk reward of doing even an armed robbery in Aus is a far better option for a quick buck.

And even if he gets the drugs out of Thailand safely, they still have a long journey.......pure madness

[froglegisgood]

Hooray for the guy who escaped the clutches of these Thai cop maniacs with their idiotic war on drugs.

----------------

We're Losing the Drug War Because Prohibition Never Works

By Hodding Carter III.

this is by far one of the best articles I read on the subject. Yes drug kills and the idiot who was carrying it should be prosecuted, but maybe we are creating the system that entertains this. With this guy, we have only caught an idiot who lost the plot when he became himself a victim and the system we have in place pushed him later on to become a mule to feed his addiction, but we have not stopped the real criminals organising it at a higher level, and we won't be able to touch them.

the result, a lost family in Australia, or a least a young girl who will suffer from it, a guy who was too stupid to see what he was doing and now will have the time to regret it, a terrible cost to all, family, friends, state and tax payers, and a bunch of morons who enjoy the fact that this guy is going to suffer... what a positive outcome...

I am sure there is better than this to be done, informing potential users of the risks has probably a greater chance of success, and let those who ignore the warning suffer from it, like those who still smoke today...

I wonder if amongst those who wish him to die in jail, some do smoke? Shouldn't they get a life sentence for poisoning the atmosphere and making smoking look good and perfectly acceptable in front of young kids who as a result might pick up the habit... aren't they contributing to kill more people that way? Yes certainly but it is legal...

flg

[PNGinBKK]

Outside the court Hood told reporters he was disappointed with the life sentence.

I suppose he would have preferred the death sentence.

Can we get a petition going for a death sentence?? We could probably get 50,000,000 signatures easily.

I'll sign!

There are often cases where you feel some amount of apathy, but this guy is just a bottom-of-the-barrel scum bag.

Chances are he's done it before with smaller amounts and got away with it.. or would have done it again...

Fortunately Life means life here, not like some other liberal minded countries.... lets hope his government don't appeal to bring him back to serve his time in their cells... this jerk-off needs to see the harsh reality of the filth he was peddling.

[paulfr]

A death sentence possible for carrying heroin ?

That is madness compared to the sentences for other crimes

which take lives directly like murder and arson.

Except for selling to a minor, drugs should be legal with the personal consequences

of use the responsibility of the user just as it is for alcohol & tobacco.

But the politicians do not want to give up their gravy train;

arrests, prosecution, prisons, parole monitoring, and graft/payoffs.

Very discouraging thinking about how it is right now.

Hopefully, the future will be more enlightened.

Edited August 5, 2009 by paulfr

[Publicus]

Someone inserting the Hodding Carter piece is a leap of geography not to mention culture and the concept and practice of jurisprudence. Carter is an intelligent and thoughtful guy who wrote the piece in 1989 but it's still timely.

I didn't see Carter mention that 100 years ago there were almost no drug laws in the US and that over the years drug control laws have exploded and proliferated to prestently permeate US society. Over more time the US will achieve a balance that is more rational than the unwanted extremes of all or nothing.

Meanwhile here in Thailand some refinement of the concept of justice would be in order. The Aussie Hood should get a sentence that is appropriate to the crime. Pardon the uninvited intrusive imperialism on my part, but perhaps we could send some of Dostoyevsky to Thai MPs and justice ministers among others. In a globalized world we might well use more uniform legal codes.

Hood is neither Al Capone nor Ned Kelly. There are bigger fish to catch besides.

[Duciboy]

Westerners don´t think the same way as regular people

What was I thinking?

That's why all the prisons in Thailand are full of Westerners and no Asians - just the "irregular people" habitat the prison system. It also explains why the Western World really consist's of third world countries.

Now I know why, cause a regular person told me what the problem is. I should hand in my University Degree's and re-do them in Thailand where I will learn how to think straighter.

Do you realize how ignorant you sound?

Edited August 5, 2009 by Duciboy

[barry]

MAYBE IF HE WERE A SHE

BILL CLINTON WOULD RIDE TO THE RESCUE

[Aqualogic]

I completely concur and that would be one of the best pieces I have read on the matter albeit (again) only using the USA as a world standard. Just the same, if the USA decriminalized any amount of the drugs out there the rest of the lemmings around the world would too eventually. Isn't it incredible what governments will & won't do for money!

[gunnyd]

The fool deserved to be caught. I don't know how anyone flying out of the Kingdom in the last few years could expect to make it through security. I haven't been through security at the airport once from 2005-present without being body checked. Yes the life sentence is extreme by Western Standards but the immigration cards and signs are clearly posted "Death Penalty for Drug Trafficking". The allure of quick cash for the stupid is strong I guess..

[mrtoad]

It amazes me that with all the life sentences handed out, fully covered by the media, that fools in full knowledge of the conditions in Thai prisons still take a chance with their futures when most have the safety net of a welfare system back home. I wonder if the success rate is so high that most mules make it through and they consider it a safe bet. Junkies numbed beyond repair, I can understand, but the rest. Madness beyond belief.

Regards Bojo

Bojo, only around 12-15% of the runners are caught.

But, what I would like to know is where and from whom he obtained the "parcels"

And where and to whom he had to deliver.

I have a feeling that not much was done to try to find the source or the destination.

I have to agree, that there are a lot more people involved in this, and this guy is pretty much at the bottom of the the food chain. Some serious investigation into the real supplier and end buyer would or should be done, although the seller is unlikely to be implicated here.

I guess, these mules take the chance as it is easy money, personally I have no sympathy for them, the risks are quite clear and well known, so if they do the crime they have to do the time.

[CrossBones]

Hooray for the guy who escaped the clutches of these Thai cop maniacs with their idiotic war on drugs.

----------------

We're Losing the Drug War Because Prohibition Never Works

By Hodding Carter III.

There is clearly no point in beating a dead horse, whether you are a politician or a columnist, but sometimes you have to do it just the same, if only for the record. So, for the record, here's another attempt to argue that a majority of the American people and their elected representatives can be and are wrong about the way they have chosen to wage the "war against drugs." Prohibition can't work, won't work and has never worked, but it can and does have monumentally costly effects on the criminal justice system and on the integrity of government at every level.

Experience should be the best teacher, and my experience with prohibition is a little more recent than most Americans for whom the "noble experiment" ended with repeal in 1933. In my home state of Mississippi, it lasted for an additional 33 years, and for all those years it was a truism that the drinkers had their liquor, the preachers had their prohibition and the sheriffs made the money. Al Capone would have been proud of the latitude that bootleggers were able to buy with their payoffs of constables, deputies, police chiefs and sheriffs across the state.

But as a first-rate series in the New York Times made clear early last year, Mississippi's prohibition-era corruption (and Chicago's before that) was penny ante stuff compared with what is happening in the U.S. today. From Brooklyn police precincts to Miami's police stations to rural Georgia courthouses, big drug money is purchasing major breakdowns in law enforcement. Sheriffs, other policemen and now judges are being bought up by the gross. But that money, with the net profits for the drug traffickers estimated at anywhere from $40 billion to $100 billion a year, is also buying up banks, legitimate businesses and, to the south of us, entire governments. The latter becomes an increasingly likely outcome in a number of cities and states in this country as well. Cicero, Ill., during Prohibition is an instructive case in point.

The money to be made from an illegal product that has about 23 million current users in this country also explains why its sale is so attractive on the mean streets of America's big cities. A street salesman can gross about $2,500 a day in Washington, which puts him in the pay category of a local television anchor, and this in a neighborhood of dead-end job chances.

Since the courts and jails are already swamped beyond capacity by the arrests that are routinely made (44,000 drug dealers and users over a two-year period in Washington alone, for instance) and since those arrests barely skim the top of the pond, arguing that stricter enforcement is the answer begs a larger question: Who is going to pay the billions of dollars required to build the prisons, hire the judges, train the policemen and employ the prosecutors needed for the load already on hand, let alone the huge one yet to come if we ever get serious about arresting dealers and users?

Much is made of the cost of drug addiction, and it should be, but the current breakdown in the criminal justice system is not one of them. That breakdown is the result of prohibition, not addiction. Drug addiction, after all, does not come close to the far vaster problems of alcohol and tobacco addiction (as former Surgeon General Koop correctly noted, tobacco is at least as addictive as heroin). Hard drugs are estimated to kill 4,000 people a year directly and several tens of thousands a year indirectly. Alcohol kills at least 100,000 a year, addicts millions more and costs the marketplace billions of dollars. Tobacco kills over 300,000 a year, addicts tens of millions and fouls the atmosphere as well. But neither alcohol nor tobacco threaten to subvert our system of law and order, because they are treated as personal and societal problems rather than as criminal ones.

Indeed, every argument that is made for prohibiting the use of currently illegal drugs can be made even more convincingly about tobacco and alcohol. The effects on the unborn? Staggeringly direct. The effects on adolescents? Alcoholism is the addiction of choice for young Americans on a ratio of about 100 to one. Lethal effect? Tobacco's murderous results are not a matter of debate anywhere outside the Tobacco Institute.

Which leaves the lingering and legitimate fear that legalization might produce a surge in use. It probably would, although not nearly as dramatic a one as opponents usually estimate. The fact is that personal use of marijuana, whatever the local laws may say, has been virtually decriminalized for some time now, but there has been a stabilization or slight decline in use, rather than an increase, for several years. Heroin addiction has held steady at about 500,000 people for some time, though the street price of heroin is far lower now than it used to be. Use of cocaine in its old form also seems to have stopped climbing and begun to drop off among young and old alike, though there is an abundantly available supply.

That leaves crack cocaine, stalker of the inner city and terror of the suburbs. Instant and addictive in effect, easy to use and relatively cheap to buy, it is a personality-destroying substance that is a clear menace to its users. But it is hard to imagine it being any more accessible under legalization than it is in most cities today under prohibition, while the financial incentives for promoting its use would virtually disappear with legalization.

Proponents of legalization should not try to fuzz the issue, nonetheless. Addiction levels might increase, at least temporarily, if legal sanctions were removed. That happened after the repeal of Prohibition, or so at least some studies have suggested. But while that would be a personal disaster for the addicts and their families, and would involve larger costs to society as a whole, those costs would be minuscule compared with the costs of continued prohibition.

The young Capones of today own the inner cities and the wholesalers behind these young retailers are rapidly buying up the larger system which is supposed to control them. Prohibition gave us the Mafia and organized crime on a scale that has been with us ever since. The new prohibition is writing a new chapter on that old text. hel_l-bent on learning nothing from history, we are witnessing its repetition, predictably enough, as tragedy.

---

Reprinted with permission of Wall Street Journal Jul 13, 1989. Mr. Carter is a political commentator who heads a television production firm.

They seem to be comparing apples with oranges here.

Alcohol and Heroin are totally different. Heroine is VERY VERY addictive and absolutely ruins peoples lives, guaranteed. There is no such thing as a "casual heroine user" or "social user", like a social drinker or whatever.

So I cant see any real alternative. Making Heroine legal (cheap and easily accessible) isnt going to make it easier for people to kick their habit. I for one am a cigarette smoker and I would WELCOME any law that made cigarettes illegal. I have tried so many times to give up, but I find I myself going to the local shop to buy a pack. If they weren't easily available, I would have given up by now.

People usually get addicted to heroin because they have deep rooted emotional issues and the drug takes their pain away. However the drug itself does not help them in any way in the long run. Heroin addiction is a reflection of our modern society and the problems people have, usually from childhood, breakdowns of the family, rape, abuse, poverty and all the other issues that give people emotional and psychological problems. Also many people are "born" with psychological problems - for example you can find physical differences in the brains of bi-polar people to healthy people.

I think in many cases its unkind to label people as "bad" "scum" etc because of their heroin addiction. But yes the drug does ruin people and turn otherwise good people into killers, muggers. People who could kill their own grandmother and then have a shot and feel OK again.

[BusyB]

It amazes me that with all the life sentences handed out, fully covered by the media, that fools in full knowledge of the conditions in Thai prisons still take a chance with their futures when most have the safety net of a welfare system back home. I wonder if the success rate is so high that most mules make it through and they consider it a safe bet. Junkies numbed beyond repair, I can understand, but the rest. Madness beyond belief.

Regards Bojo

Bojo, only around 12-15% of the runners are caught.

But, what I would like to know is where and from whom he obtained the "parcels"

And where and to whom he had to deliver.

I have a feeling that not much was done to try to find the source or the destination.

that's answered my own question as to how many actually get through. on the surface certainly enough to make it attractive to a risk taker even in SEA. Just as interesting though is the question as to how many are allowed to get through because of protection, and on the flip side how many are offered up as sacrifice for good headlines and statistics.

Either way the word 'mule' is entirely appropriate.

[samjaidee]

life probably doesn't mean life. he will probably get 15 years and then get released and then be at the age where he can easily get a pretty young thai girlfriend pretending to love him not for his passport. not too bad a deal then.

i hope he dies of aids first, people like him never change and do not deserve a second chance, bring in the death penalty

What a fatuous remark. Do you know him? Have you ever met him? How do you know he'll never change?

I'm not, for a moment, suggesting that what he did was right but to hope that any human being dies of AIDS is the most extraordinarily inhumane thing to say.

By the way, as a young man, I had two friends die from overdoses so I despise anyone who deals in Class 'A' narcotics BUT to wish death from AIDS on anyone is just the thought of a sick mind.

[RKASA]

They should be RFI tagging him and his belongings then following him home.  Sometimes wonder if most mules get caught because they are competition to the established and protected operations...  Perhaps they really don't want to know where he got it.  The other day they stopped a truck because it carried drugs, a witness reported it, but no mention about money, no source, No who paid whom, when or where, just two guys and truck full of drugs.  Its a miracle.  

Death just for being a stupid bum is a bit over the top,   save it for the Noriaga types.  

A long sentence anywhere is not a small thing, someplace's are just worse then others, none are better.

[Tigs]

I can only assume that the drug Barons pay people like this, in the full knowledge they will get caught (I am sure the Drug Barons even inform the police of these idiots), so that time and effort is focused on catching mules at the airport instead of focusing on how the significant stashes of drugs are smuggled. There must be much easier, successful and less risky ways to do this sort of stuff. To carry it on your person really does need you to be a sandwich short of a picnic. These Ops keep the public happy because the Police are seen to be 'effective' (so they are also happy), and the Drug Barons happy, because they lose 3 Kg of white stuff but can carry on shipping it around the world by the ton.

Edited August 5, 2009 by Tigs

[pattaya_girl]

Well I feel sorry for his family - it must be heartbreaking for them.

The guy must be a bit simple to honestly think he would get through secruity with bags of drugs strapped to his body.

What is Jail for Life in Thailand? Will he be freed one day? or will he have to stay inside till he dies.... Just wondered.

[londonthai]

That is madness compared to the sentences for other crimes

which take lives directly like murder and arson. ...

But the politicians do not want to give up their gravy train;

there are big money to be made on drugs - that's why governments try to controll it.

in the west - as to stop corruption of cops and politicians by the mafia.

in the east - because the cops, politicians and the army to the top level are a mafia, making real money not from they daily, poorly paid jobs, but from the drug manufacturing and trade.

It's a well known fact in thailand, that cops do push drugs to the street dealers. If the dealer doesn't want to sell drugs anymore he/she is set up by the cop-supplier and arrested - to teach the other street dealers not to turn back on the cops.

thaksin tried to sort it up - but in effect it was cops who took over the former mafia drug trade. Cops just simply cleaned up their competition and are free to run business on their own.

There is a moo ban close to my house - all the most expensive houses, ten's and hundred's million worth, belong to the cop's families

[sunholidaysun1]

Desperation can do funny things to people. Lucky he didnt get the death sentance !!

Hes obviously Brain Dead. Stupid man..

[pdavids]

It's disappointing that someone hauling smack out of the Kingdom gets life, but farang murderers here often get a only few years and serial pedophiles are frequently released so the police can extort them again and again.

Remember the hype over the arrest of three Swedish pedophiles in Pattaya five weeks or so ago? One of them is out already - all charges dropped - and another one is scrambling to find the necessary money to have the charges dropped. It would be good if media in this country tracked arrests, trials and convictions as done in many countries, although the task would no doubt be daunting!

[reallyok]

Execution is now by lethal injection. What was this silly fool thinking??? Australia's airports have some of the toughest security measures in the world.They've even made a TV series about it. He never saw the show??? I dont believe it. Every passenger coming off a flight from Asia or Sth America must walk past one of the little sniffer dogs in the baggage hall. Impossible to avoid them because officials are watching you. He was never ever going to get through. Zero chance particularly a flight from Bangkok which is probably the NO 1 watch flight for customs officials. Incredible.

Hi Jalan..... what really confuses me, is how did his partner manage to escape.

After having passed immigration and entered the departure lounge, how in the hel_l can one escape , and where to ????? ..........tea money perhaps !

[reallyok]

A death sentence possible for carrying heroin ?

That is madness compared to the sentences for other crimes

which take lives directly like murder and arson.

Except for selling to a minor, drugs should be legal with the personal consequences

of use the responsibility of the user just as it is for alcohol & tobacco.

But the politicians do not want to give up their gravy train;

arrests, prosecution, prisons, parole monitoring, and graft/payoffs.

Very discouraging thinking about how it is right now.

Hopefully, the future will be more enlightened.

AND ! they shoot the bastards without trial if caught about to traffic drugs to my country .......Australia ! or anywhere else in fact.