UK Family Calls For Thailand Drug Smuggler Michael Connell To Be Released

[Buchholz]

He should be so lucky. A Thai would of got life or death for that huge quantity of drugs.

Dont convicted drug traffickers have to do the same prison stretch at home as they do in Thailand as per prison exchange laws ?

Connell has learning difficulties ? Didnt seem to be impeding his ability to pack pills into cream jars.

Just another example of going soft on poor little misguided westerners.

20 years for 3000 odd e's isn't going soft by any stretch and that isn't a 'huge quantity' of drugs either, quite small in fact... they would have been only worth about 1500-2000 pounds to buy in the uk in that quantity.

Ecstasy was relatively new in Thailand in 2004.

His 3,500 pills then were valued at 3.4 Million Baht at the time.

While 20 years may not seem like going soft, jalansanitwong makes a valid point it that it could very easily have been ascribed a lengthier prison sentence to other defendants in Thailand, which has occurred.

.

oh i know the ridiculous sentences for drug offences in thailand and i wouldn't dispute for a second that by thai standards he did get off soft..

i just meant for the punishment fitting the crime, 20 years is severe.

Any sentence severity is relative to the country trying the case and the severity to which others in those countries receive for similar offences.

While 20 years might be viewed as severe in some countries, 3500 Ecstasy tablets would have resulted in the death penalty being imposed in other countries, where it would be considered the norm.

,

[orchis]

You guys are hardcore. The stupid kid has done 8 years in a god awful place that tends to turn people into a mess of silly. Let him serve out his time in his home country where some real rehabilitation can take place. Good luck stupid, don't do it again.

He has returned to the UK to serve the rest of his sentence. He served eight years in Bangkok's Bang Kwang prison.

[kevinsan]

Michael Connell was stoppedwith 3,400 pills hidden in facial cream jars.

This demonstrates;

1. He was a trafficer of a dangerous product.

2. 3400 tablets wasn't for personal use, but for personal profit.

I don't understand the logic of people demanding clemency. If this man had taken a similar amount of chemicals and dumped it, people would be calling for his head because of his spreading of toxic carcinogens. Here we have a man that instead took the toxic chemicals and was going to sell it to people, many of whom did not possess the mental capacity to understand the dangerous nature of the product. Would people be so understanding if he was selling dangerous chemicals to officially designated intellectually challenged people?

What would be the reaction of a major pharmaceutical company if that company sold unsafe products to the general product? How is this man different? Hee was trafficing in chemicals that had no quality assurance and that were dangerous.

Albert Hoffmann lived to be 103. Shulgin had a stroke at 85, but he is still around.

[dantilley]

Connell has learning difficulties ? Didnt seem to be impeding his ability to pack pills into cream jars.

How would it impede him? Is packing pills into jars something which requires a high level of intellect?

???? No, but having a condition that means he's not able to make decsions on whether something is right or wrong to the extent of a normal sound minded person should come into consideration in a fair legal trial.

Yes, true, but the post I was responding to was inferring that learning difficulties could affect one's jar packing abilities.

[Bakseedaa]

He should be so lucky. A Thai would of got life or death for that huge quantity of drugs.

Dont convicted drug traffickers have to do the same prison stretch at home as they do in Thailand as per prison exchange laws ?

Connell has learning difficulties ? Didnt seem to be impeding his ability to pack pills into cream jars.

Just another example of going soft on poor little misguided westerners.

Come on guys , its only Ecstasy... He has done long enough and has now surely repaid society and I am sure he is a reformed man... have a heart and set him free...

[wxyz]

Learning difficulties or not, just being a naive trusting person can get you into this kind of trouble.

Yingluck says she is going to restart her brothers war on drugs, so you can expect more blood in the streets and more lockups and more executions.

OK, now going back to politics for a minute, you’ve been quoted as saying in some of your policies that you will start a new war on drugs, eradicate drugs in twelve months and also a war on poverty in you will hope to eliminate poverty from the country within, I think four years.

Yes.

Do you think these are really realistic targets? Do you think you can really get rid of drugs in…

Yes, of course. I think we will work with a team and most of the team will come from the team who has already been successful in the past, so I believe this is something we can implement.

How specifically will you do it?

For the drugs, I think instead of counting how many people to handle it, we have to have a strategy with drugs, how we can make sure we follow it strictly. We will bring in the old paradigm and, as for people who take drugs, we think we have to take care of them and help them and educate them and help them return to normal society. As for people who sell the drugs, I think we have to have to take action and make sure it won’t happen again.

Human Rights Watch has branded ousted Thai prime minister “a human rights abuser of the worst kind”

Thaksin’s human rights violations.

Thaksin presided over extrajudicial killings during the notorious “war on drugs”. HRW says 2,500 people were killed during one three-month period at the start of 2003.

Thaksin told the Thai military to employ any means to suppress an insurgency in the south of Thailand.

Thaksin Suppressed the Thai media.

Edited January 24, 2012 by wxyz

[Boater]

and the dealers who forced him to take the drugs to thailand knowing he was ' not all there ' and the dealers who where to collect the drugs all got off scott free? , in my eyes they are more guilty then he was

[Considered Opinion]

Yes time to let him go,give him job seekers allowance,a rent free council flat and maybe a crisis loan for good measure,the poor lads had a terrible time.

Well done that man----

Thank God the boy wasn't into boys as well.....

Edited January 24, 2012 by Considered Opinion

[sydneyjed]

If he was a European/Canadian/American/Australian he would have been allowed to return to his home country to serve the remainder of his time after 8 years that is the issue. He did the crime and has done the time in BKK now let him return to the UK and serve time. He was a kid when he committed this crime, I am not making excuses for his actions but 8 years is ample in a Thai prison IMHO.

Here are links to the BBC documentary it is in two parts and Michael appears often,

Part 1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFo8P7RG5Fw

Part 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIbJ0-JiO1w

Not from Australia he would not...who gave you that information?Canadians are looked on favourably but having visited prisoners and experienced both governments and authorities you are way off the mark!

[djayz]

Yeah, great idea. Let's send him back to Europe where he will be pampered in a European jail - 3 meals a day, TV, videos, etc. all compliments of the European tax payer. Let him rot where he is. Probably never paid a cent into the pot back home and how the state should take care of this lad?!?!? It p*sses me off when criminals come out with excuses like "learning disability" or "grew up in a bad neighbourhood" or "socially disadvantaged" just to get out of doing their time. If you do the crime, do the time.

[Chopperboy]

Michael Connell was stoppedwith 3,400 pills hidden in facial cream jars.

What would be the reaction of a major pharmaceutical company if that company sold unsafe products to the general product? How is this man different? Hee was trafficing in chemicals that had no quality assurance and that were dangerous.

A quarter of a million Americans died or had their life span severely limited by 4 recent drugs: Vioxx Avandia Trasylol Bextra

In 2009 Pfizer paid $2.3Bn in criminal damages for acting "with the intent to defraud or mislead." regarding Bextra. Pfizer "too big to nail" was allowed to set up a subsidiary (which has never sold a single pill) to pay the fine.

When Big Pharma kills, no one goes to prison.

[bigbamboo]

Michael Connell was stoppedwith 3,400 pills hidden in facial cream jars.

This demonstrates;

1. He was a trafficer of a dangerous product.

2. 3400 tablets wasn't for personal use, but for personal profit.

I don't understand the logic of people demanding clemency. If this man had taken a similar amount of chemicals and dumped it, people would be calling for his head because of his spreading of toxic carcinogens. Here we have a man that instead took the toxic chemicals and was going to sell it to people, many of whom did not possess the mental capacity to understand the dangerous nature of the product. Would people be so understanding if he was selling dangerous chemicals to officially designated intellectually challenged people?

What would be the reaction of a major pharmaceutical company if that company sold unsafe products to the general product? How is this man different? Hee was trafficing in chemicals that had no quality assurance and that were dangerous.

For someone with 'learning difficulties' he seemed compos mentis enough to fly to a foreign country with the intent to make a profit on smuggled drugs where the risks are huge and well publicised. Perhaps if his family just said he was an idiot?

Edited January 24, 2012 by bigbamboo

[Commentor]

He should be so lucky. A Thai would of got life or death for that huge quantity of drugs.

Dont convicted drug traffickers have to do the same prison stretch at home as they do in Thailand as per prison exchange laws ?

Connell has learning difficulties ? Didnt seem to be impeding his ability to pack pills into cream jars.

Just another example of going soft on poor little misguided westerners.

While he try his luck to smuggle drug into other people country, did he pity other people children that the drugs he is carrying can kill others and ruins their family lifes?

Bullsh1t !!

I will be more sympathize on him if his parent and himself admitted he is stupid to do it and plead for leniency rather then lame excuses that he has 'learning difficulty'. i have seen his video while being lead to a bus still able to shout out to his mum not to worry about him and he will takecare of himself here(bangkok prison).

CRAPS !!!

Edited January 24, 2012 by Commentor

[anterian]

Coincidentally this article appeared yesterday http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-16678322

and this appeared today http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-16692092

[Card]

He should be so lucky. A Thai would of got life or death for that huge quantity of drugs.

Dont convicted drug traffickers have to do the same prison stretch at home as they do in Thailand as per prison exchange laws ?

Connell has learning difficulties ? Didnt seem to be impeding his ability to pack pills into cream jars.

Just another example of going soft on poor little misguided westerners.

20 years for 3000 odd e's isn't going soft by any stretch and that isn't a 'huge quantity' of drugs either, quite small in fact... they would have been only worth about 1500-2000 pounds to buy in the uk in that quantity.

as his dad said in that article, 8 years in the hilton is enough punishment for the crime.

tho i think his sentence is reduced by half so he 'only' has another six years.

So when have sentences for drug trafficking been deternined by the trafficker's daddy? Well, OK, maybe with Thai politician's sons, but that's a whole different ballgame.

[BigJohnnyBKK]

What would be the reaction of a major pharmaceutical company if that company sold unsafe products to the general product? How is this man different?

Happens all the time and nobody goes to jail, often a bit of cash + the embarassing publicity is considered punishment enough.

People choose to poison themselves in many ways, the "war on drugs" is much more harmful to society than the drugs themselves.

[sprq]

He should be so lucky. A Thai would of got life or death for that huge quantity of drugs.

Dont convicted drug traffickers have to do the same prison stretch at home as they do in Thailand as per prison exchange laws ?

Connell has learning difficulties ? Didnt seem to be impeding his ability to pack pills into cream jars.

Just another example of going soft on poor little misguided westerners.

Should anybody get jail for carrying pills? If so, for what pills? And for what reason? What is your position on drugs? Has it never occurred to you that the whole "war on drugs" is lunacy? Especially when it results in this kind of cruel sentencing.

[housepainter]

I wonder what kind of learning difficulty he has?

Must be the sort where some one tells you that smuggling drugs into Thailand is not very clever and then has to repeat it.

Strange.

I didn't need telling in the first place.

Could have been a misunderstanding from the start. The Police got there part wrong in not understanding they were not to catch him. Then there's pills in a jar of cream. OK. Pills in a jar sounds about right. But creamy pills? It'll be cheesy peas next and Dragon's Den will have launched another multi-millionaire.

Just like our learning difficulty chappie was no doubt intending to be. But how would he have spent it if he hasn't got the marbles to count it? More confusion.

Despite all he probably was brought up to speed a tad at the hands of the buddhist Thai prisoners who no doubt crammed in more education during the short time together than the British Education System ever strove to achieve.

A beneficial experience then. One I expect he'll return to at a later date. At least when abroad it won't be a local difficulty.

Travel then.

Broadens the mind.

Next.

[rreddin]

If it was a European/Canadian/American/Australian he would have been allowed to return to his home country to serve the remainder of his time after 8 years that is the issue. He did the crime and has done the time in BKK now let him return to the UK and serve time. He was a kid when he committed this crime, I am not making excuses for his actions but 8 years is ample in a Thai prison IMHO.

I suggest you read the OP once again,but this time with your reading glasses on.

You are right, I do need new glasses- I thought he was still banged up abroad and that made me angry. He is back in the UK after 8 years in BKK let the UK justice system deal with the issue. the time served issue.

Having read the full article on the BBC's website, it would seem that most posters have missed the point of the OP. It is not about the sentence imposed by the Thai court, but how, once back in the UK, the Ministry of justice treats those prisoners convicted by a foreign court differently from those convicted of similar crimes in the UK.

In the UK, he would have received a custodial sentence, which would have been for a lesser period - probably substantially less than the 8 + years he has already served. However, the UK will not repatriate its citizens imprisoned abroad for more than 8 years until (s)he has served at least 8 years, then on return to the UK, they are required to serve the balance of half of the term of imprisonment imposed by the foreign court. In his case, that could be another two years, which is probably more than three times longer than he would have served if he wasconvicted in the UK.

[mrtoad]

Connell has learning difficulties ? Didnt seem to be impeding his ability to pack pills into cream jars.

How would it impede him? Is packing pills into jars something which requires a high level of intellect?

It depends on the type of lid on the jar

[BookMan]

All these comparisons with Thai sentences compared to home country sentencing. They are different countries and different laws. You can't compare them.

It isn't bad luck these people get caught smuggling drugs in Thailand, it's bad decision making on their part to have done it in the first place. To compare the lethality or not of various drugs is irrelevant. Once again, the Thai laws are clear and strict on drug smuggling/dealing.

I personally think the Thai sentencing is too harsh, but it is widely known, they don't hide it, yet still people try bringing in and taking out drugs.

The lucky ones get to transfer back to their home countries to serve part of their sentences. Yet even then, they feel they are harshly done by, and out comes all the people to defend the length of sentencing or whether or not the drugs were recreational, or what sentence they would have got in their home country.

It's very easy to avoid a life sentence in the Bangkok Hilton. Don't deal in drugs in Thailand.

[VBF]

Fellow TV Members - some of you seem to be missing the point!

Firstly let me say I don’t believe in any sort of prohibition - let all drugs be available to consenting adults just like alcohol and tobacco are. Adults take responsibility for their own actions - or they die for not doing so - Charles Darwin would approve!

However this Connell moron (and that’s complementary!) intentionally broke the law as it exists knowing the possible outcome - as someone said here “if you can’t do the time, don’t do the crime.”

More importantly, in the BBC documentary on the “Bangkok Hilton” some years ago this particular piece of low-life animal droppings was interviewed. I clearly remember his “reason” for smuggling drugs was that “He visited Thailand on holiday, liked it and couldn’t afford to go back. So to pay for the trip he smuggled the drugs”

This demonstrates he was not exploited - just took a chance and got caught.

So how about getting a job you lazy little scumbag and EARN the right to travel? Can’t get a job that pays enough? TOUGH! Get some skills and work your passage. As it is, if this low-life is released into society it will get Government-paid benefits out of MY and every other Brit’s taxes.

Should have left him in the Hilton to rot!

[OZEMADE]

I wonder how some on TVF would feel if they, or their mate or family were the one that had their drink spiked and were robbed and bashed or even killed from the drugs this scumbag bought into Thailand to make a quick quid.

Or how they would feel if their kid was given drugs at school and became edicted or even died from the drugs he took.

I have no sympathy for the scum bag and in my opinion he should have been executed. I have no time for drug peddlers who have no other cause than to make a quick quid at others expense.

[Buchholz]

Connell has learning difficulties ? Didnt seem to be impeding his ability to pack pills into cream jars.

How would it impede him? Is packing pills into jars something which requires a high level of intellect?

It depends on the type of lid on the jar

[ianf]

I am afraid that the problem in Thailand is the excessive sentencing that people receive for drug offences. There is a vast difference between those who smuggle truck loads of hard drugs across the boarder, cretaing dependency, criminal and health issues amongst a vulnerable population and those dealing in 'soft' drugs which the middle classes (amongst others) use for personal enjoyment in the same way as people use alcohol. Ecstacy comes into the latter category. I actually hate drugs (& alcohol) and am not arguing for anything but fair sentencing.

I have been helping a young Turkish boy in the Hilton, orginally for 25 years, for 340 (approx) ecstacy pills. Stupid boy? Yes! He's 24 years old and comes from a poor family. His choices in Turkey were quite slim. He was offered this chance of a free trip and holiday - something which hitherto had been far beyond his means or expectations. He got caught. The Turkish embassy are of little help and there is no exchange deal with Turkey so he has to serve his time in Thailand. In the UK he would have been sentenced to 2 or maybe 3 years and hopefully he would have learnt his lesson as a first time offender. But 25 years? Give us a break, man. This is harsh and serves no purpose at all. It is not even a deterrent as many people have been caught since then. And why should the Thai authorities hold onto him for so long? It costs them money, the prisons are still overcrowded despite the recent release of 26000 inmates and they are turning a young man with potential into a zombie. No point. Let him go and tell him not to come back. Same for the English guy. What is the point in letting him rot away in a British jail? 8 years is enough.

[rotary]

He should still be "checked In" at the Hilton

[moe666]

We see it happen in Thailand every day, some nim rod trying to smuggle in drugs and they get caught. Please donot smuggle drugs into Thailand, if you are caught you will do time, you are not home.

[ianf]

I wonder how some on TVF would feel if they, or their mate or family were the one that had their drink spiked and were robbed and bashed or even killed from the drugs this scumbag bought into Thailand to make a quick quid.

Or how they would feel if their kid was given drugs at school and became edicted or even died from the drugs he took.

I have no sympathy for the scum bag and in my opinion he should have been executed. I have no time for drug peddlers who have no other cause than to make a quick quid at others expense.

You clearly know nothing about this issue. Spiked drinks are usually spiked with chemicals available (in Thailand) from any pharmacy. People do not get 'edicted' or even addicted to ecstacy. And I trust that this poster stays away from Alcohol which is pushed by major corporations, advertised by football teams and so on. More people have been killed, raped, beaten up or otherwise damaged because of alcohol than because of drugs. Alcohol is available eveywhere at anytime. Today I was in a national park (Alcohol ban) and watched as two farangs drank bottles of Chang and then wobbled to their hire car which they drove off as if in a F1 race. I hope they didn't knock some poor village kid over. So don't give me that Sh... about drugs without looking at the broader issue. And tell me... how much do you drink?

Edited January 24, 2012 by ianf

[SouthernMan3]

Yes time to let him go,give him job seekers allowance,a rent free council flat and maybe a crisis loan for good measure,the poor lads had a terrible time.

Ever heard of education and rehabilitation ?

I don't know about you but in my opinion jail is 'big business'.

Let's teach not just incarcerate.

8 years in the Hilton.

Now how about some English rehab.

Then maybe he can become a functional member of society not just another number for the companies that sell food and toilet paper to jails.

Edited January 24, 2012 by SouthernMan3

[Beetlejuice]

Michael Connell was stoppedwith 3,400 pills hidden in facial cream jars.

This demonstrates;

1. He was a trafficer of a dangerous product.

2. 3400 tablets wasn't for personal use, but for personal profit.

I don't understand the logic of people demanding clemency. If this man had taken a similar amount of chemicals and dumped it, people would be calling for his head because of his spreading of toxic carcinogens. Here we have a man that instead took the toxic chemicals and was going to sell it to people, many of whom did not possess the mental capacity to understand the dangerous nature of the product. Would people be so understanding if he was selling dangerous chemicals to officially designated intellectually challenged people?

What would be the reaction of a major pharmaceutical company if that company sold unsafe products to the general product? How is this man different? Hee was trafficing in chemicals that had no quality assurance and that were dangerous.

Absolutely agree.

These people trade in products that are capable of ruining peoples lives, even death in many cases.

Good, let the guy wallow in his own suffering and made an example for those who already are or maybe considering becoming drug dealers.

These criminals are not wanted by the majority and it is right to take them out of society.