Arrested American part of 'major trafficking ring in Southeast Asia'

[NamKangMan]

THIS is what users' drug dollars help pay for! Predators, slime, scum - when a user slips that wad of money to a dealer somewhere, he HELPS THIS HAPPEN. Whine and sulk about legalization all you want. If you buy drugs you're part of this, and as far as I'm concerned deserve a commensurate punishment when caught.

You do know that cigarettes and alcohol kills more people, globally, than all of the illicit drugs, combined, don't you?

That means that Governments, all around the world, are the biggest drug dealers on the planet, and the drugs they allow to be sold, with taxation, kills people, legally.

Oh please, not that lame whining about cigs & alcohol again. Hunter & Co. weren't part of an international budweiser smuggling ring, and weren't planning to assassinate the local marlboro dealer. LOL. You guys really need some new material for your standup act.

In this case, the American Government (DEA) has used considerable funds to catch these guys for trafficking drugs illicit into the US that kill people, or cause they demise.

Why don't they outlaw cigarettes and alcohol to save even more lives and protect social fabric?

The reason why they don't is because they make too much money (tax) from their sales.

If it's all about saving lives, why not ban the two biggest killer drugs????

Simple question, really.

[hawker9000]

Even simpler (for those that find this complicated...). So when I buy a beer I subsidize my elected government. When someone buys drugs they subsidize some of the worst thugs, butchers, and human predators on the planet. Want bodies? Take a trip to Mexico. Or Colombia. Bodies all over the planet actually. You might have to match up some missing heads and sort through mass graves; stuff like that. You're seriously questioning the length, depth and breadth of the global drug networks and cartels, and the extent of the violence and corruption?! No wonder your insistence on "simple".

But I have a solution! Throw the users, dealers, traffickers, overlords, the whole bunch into the deepest, darkest, rat-infested, dung-encrusted pit we can find. And they won't mind a bit! Why, you ask? Simple (and I know that's good...). We're going to throw all the garbage LE confiscates right in after them! Yeah, baby! They can party themselves right into oblivion! We'll lick that prison overcrowding thing practically overnight! Yeah!! And no drug disposal issues either: the environmental lobby will like that. Talk about a win-win!

Simple enough?

[paz]

Even simpler (for those that find this complicated...). So when I buy a beer I subsidize my elected government. When someone buys drugs they subsidize some of the worst thugs, butchers, and human predators on the planet. Want bodies? Take a trip to Mexico. Or Colombia. Bodies all over the planet actually. You might have to match up some missing heads and sort through mass graves; stuff like that. You're seriously questioning the length, depth and breadth of the global drug networks and cartels, and the extent of the violence and corruption?! No wonder your insistence on "simple".

But I have a solution! Throw the users, dealers, traffickers, overlords, the whole bunch into the deepest, darkest, rat-infested, dung-encrusted pit we can find. And they won't mind a bit! Why, you ask? Simple (and I know that's good...). We're going to throw all the garbage LE confiscates right in after them! Yeah, baby! They can party themselves right into oblivion! We'll lick that prison overcrowding thing practically overnight! Yeah!! And no drug disposal issues either: the environmental lobby will like that. Talk about a win-win!

Simple enough?

Very simple. One wonders why all the world isn't so smart like you, and keep struggling when things are, in fact, so simple.

[animatic]

The DEA under covers provided them all this stuff to make the hit, but no hit was done???

So arrested for what? Conversation, excepting masks? Allegedly accepting a contract on a fake hit?

I doubt these are nice boys, but this smells a bit.

It's called conspiracy to commit if you are not up on the legal aspects. Or try receipt of illegal weapons and I'm sure a bunch of other pieces to fit the puzzle. Or is that a rhetorical devil's advocate post?

I understand about conspiracy, but this seems, if read clearly,

to be a organised sting of guys they suspected, and not something initiated by the ex SF boys.

We will never know, but who was the driving force to make the conspiracy happen?

The DEA agents or the criminals? I know a person, not doing any crominal activity,

who lost their home for knowing the wrong guys, and not doing a crime,

just knowing someone since childhood, and getting set up by DEA on suspicion.

It certainly has elements of a set up by DEA to take them out, not simply providing access to stuff,

and letting a crime happen. We'll see. Granted we don't want contract hits to actually happen,

But if these were drug dealers, it would have been fair-play to provide a stash,

and sell it too them and bust them clean.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

The more recent news reports make it seem like these guys were more into security and enforcement for drug dealers vs. drug dealing themselves.

Of course, if someone is working for or with drug dealers, I suppose that also would fit the bill for a conspiracy charge to import cocaine or whatever.

[NamKangMan]

Even simpler (for those that find this complicated...). So when I buy a beer I subsidize my elected government. When someone buys drugs they subsidize some of the worst thugs, butchers, and human predators on the planet. Want bodies? Take a trip to Mexico. Or Colombia. Bodies all over the planet actually. You might have to match up some missing heads and sort through mass graves; stuff like that. You're seriously questioning the length, depth and breadth of the global drug networks and cartels, and the extent of the violence and corruption?! No wonder your insistence on "simple".

But I have a solution! Throw the users, dealers, traffickers, overlords, the whole bunch into the deepest, darkest, rat-infested, dung-encrusted pit we can find. And they won't mind a bit! Why, you ask? Simple (and I know that's good...). We're going to throw all the garbage LE confiscates right in after them! Yeah, baby! They can party themselves right into oblivion! We'll lick that prison overcrowding thing practically overnight! Yeah!! And no drug disposal issues either: the environmental lobby will like that. Talk about a win-win!

Simple enough?

"So when I buy a beer I subsidize my elected government." - yes, however, more people are dying from tobacco and alcohol and your "subsidy" is no longer covering the medical costs of these people, so, they keep putting the prices (tax) up.

You focus on the criminality of drugs. Basically, working class can afford beer and cigarettes and do not have to resort to crime, but a heroin addict, for example, has to steal.

I'm focusing on the health aspect of drugs. Is "addiction" a crime issue, or a health issue?

[hawker9000]

Even simpler (for those that find this complicated...). So when I buy a beer I subsidize my elected government. When someone buys drugs they subsidize some of the worst thugs, butchers, and human predators on the planet. Want bodies? Take a trip to Mexico. Or Colombia. Bodies all over the planet actually. You might have to match up some missing heads and sort through mass graves; stuff like that. You're seriously questioning the length, depth and breadth of the global drug networks and cartels, and the extent of the violence and corruption?! No wonder your insistence on "simple".

But I have a solution! Throw the users, dealers, traffickers, overlords, the whole bunch into the deepest, darkest, rat-infested, dung-encrusted pit we can find. And they won't mind a bit! Why, you ask? Simple (and I know that's good...). We're going to throw all the garbage LE confiscates right in after them! Yeah, baby! They can party themselves right into oblivion! We'll lick that prison overcrowding thing practically overnight! Yeah!! And no drug disposal issues either: the environmental lobby will like that. Talk about a win-win!

Simple enough?

"So when I buy a beer I subsidize my elected government." - yes, however, more people are dying from tobacco and alcohol and your "subsidy" is no longer covering the medical costs of these people, so, they keep putting the prices (tax) up.

You focus on the criminality of drugs. Basically, working class can afford beer and cigarettes and do not have to resort to crime, but a heroin addict, for example, has to steal.

I'm focusing on the health aspect of drugs. Is "addiction" a crime issue, or a health issue?

Are you suggesting that addicts get their start by having a gun held to their heads as they're being forcefully administered their first hit and whatever else it takes to get them addicted?? And are you further suggesting that all drug use is pursuant to addiction?

[NamKangMan]

Even simpler (for those that find this complicated...). So when I buy a beer I subsidize my elected government. When someone buys drugs they subsidize some of the worst thugs, butchers, and human predators on the planet. Want bodies? Take a trip to Mexico. Or Colombia. Bodies all over the planet actually. You might have to match up some missing heads and sort through mass graves; stuff like that. You're seriously questioning the length, depth and breadth of the global drug networks and cartels, and the extent of the violence and corruption?! No wonder your insistence on "simple".

But I have a solution! Throw the users, dealers, traffickers, overlords, the whole bunch into the deepest, darkest, rat-infested, dung-encrusted pit we can find. And they won't mind a bit! Why, you ask? Simple (and I know that's good...). We're going to throw all the garbage LE confiscates right in after them! Yeah, baby! They can party themselves right into oblivion! We'll lick that prison overcrowding thing practically overnight! Yeah!! And no drug disposal issues either: the environmental lobby will like that. Talk about a win-win!

Simple enough?

"So when I buy a beer I subsidize my elected government." - yes, however, more people are dying from tobacco and alcohol and your "subsidy" is no longer covering the medical costs of these people, so, they keep putting the prices (tax) up.

You focus on the criminality of drugs. Basically, working class can afford beer and cigarettes and do not have to resort to crime, but a heroin addict, for example, has to steal.

I'm focusing on the health aspect of drugs. Is "addiction" a crime issue, or a health issue?

Are you suggesting that addicts get their start by having a gun held to their heads as they're being forcefully administered their first hit and whatever else it takes to get them addicted?? And are you further suggesting that all drug use is pursuant to addiction?

Maybe I'm saying Governmnets, all around the world, are "addicted" to the tax revenue that the two biggest killing drugs of their citizens, alcohol and tobacco, generate.

[hawker9000]

Ahem. Again. When I buy tobacco & alcohol (thereby by "feeding the government addiction" to tax revenues you keep going on about), I'm NOT helping subsidize the global drug network of death & corruption. If you want to rail about governments & taxes you should really start another thread (where you'd find me an enthusiastic ally, BTW) rather than try & misdirect the focus of this one.

[NamKangMan]

Ahem. Again. When I buy tobacco & alcohol (thereby by "feeding the government addiction" to tax revenues you keep going on about), I'm NOT helping subsidize the global drug network of death & corruption. If you want to rail about governments & taxes you should really start another thread (where you'd find me an enthusiastic ally, BTW) rather than try & misdirect the focus of this one.

Not misdirecting focus of this thread.

I'd be interested in any data you could post showning that tobacco and alcohol DO NOT kill more people than ALL of the ilict drugs, combine.

Maybe you should give a little focus to that fact and open your eyes to what organisations/companies are truly the world's biggest drug manufacturers and disributors, and profit by also poisoning people, slowly, so they get the maximum money out of them, over many years, and eventually kills many of the consumers, and does so, legally.

[hawker9000]

Once AGAIN trying to misdirect this thread, which is NOT about the comparative health benefits of drugs vs alcohol & tobacco. The drug legalization rabble ALWAYS tries to play that card. THIS thread is about the arrest of a drug trafficker! Most think that whole debate is nonsense, but if you want to have it, start your own topic and give it a shot. 'Not going to get yanked into it here though, because it's quite obviously irrelevant.

[itchybum]

Once AGAIN trying to misdirect this thread, which is NOT about the comparative health benefits of drugs vs alcohol & tobacco. The drug legalization rabble ALWAYS tries to play that card. THIS thread is about the arrest of a drug trafficker! Most think that whole debate is nonsense, but if you want to have it, start your own topic and give it a shot. 'Not going to get yanked into it here though, because it's quite obviously irrelevant.

Sounds like you've already been yanked in....

[NamKangMan]

Once AGAIN trying to misdirect this thread, which is NOT about the comparative health benefits of drugs vs alcohol & tobacco. The drug legalization rabble ALWAYS tries to play that card. THIS thread is about the arrest of a drug trafficker! Most think that whole debate is nonsense, but if you want to have it, start your own topic and give it a shot. 'Not going to get yanked into it here though, because it's quite obviously irrelevant.

No data, hey?

"THIS thread is about the arrest of a drug trafficker." - how many people has the drugs he has trafficked killed, compared to the millions of people the drugs this company produces has killed, but one is painted a villain, and the other a public listed profitable company.

http://www.pmi.com/eng/pages/homepage.aspx

They both traffic/manufacture drugs that kill.

[dighambara]

They will hopefully spend the rest of their lives in jail. Whilst they have probably enjoyed a lavish lifestyle it is never worth it.

More likely, the ones with sufficient bribe money will be found innocent and those brought in late or who were unknowing accomplices will receive the maximum jail term.

This seems to be the trend worldwide, as years ago, a wanted felon was elected US President and, more recently, a man with forged birth documents was elected.

Right vs wrong seem to be rhetorical questions.

[paz]

They will hopefully spend the rest of their lives in jail. Whilst they have probably enjoyed a lavish lifestyle it is never worth it.

More likely, the ones with sufficient bribe money will be found innocent and those brought in late or who were unknowing accomplices will receive the maximum jail term.

This seems to be the trend worldwide, as years ago, a wanted felon was elected US President and, more recently, a man with forged birth documents was elected.

Right vs wrong seem to be rhetorical questions.

Ahahha! Forged birth documents.. again!

Go man go !

[squarethecircle]

Here's a really fascinating article about the complicated situation surrounding this guy's arrest. Apparently a DEA informant was set up to be murdered by him when the DEA caught on, in the midst of another big DEA operation targeting North Korean meth being distributed through Hong Kong to the US. Wild East!

https://news.vice.com/article/north-korean-meth-motorcycle-gangs-army-snipers-and-a-guy-named-rambo

[resimi]

From the OP:

The same team of police then searched for additional suspects in the Patong Beach area, leading to the arrest of five more people - two Britons, a Slovakian, a Filipino and a Taiwanese.

There's an update on the former Phuket resident Briton and others arrested in this case.

The previously unnamed man is Scott Stammers. He is shown in the OP photo as 2nd from the left.

He and others have pled guilty in U.S. federal court in New York for conspiracy to import 100 kilograms of methamphetamines from North Korea to the USA by way of ship in Thailand.

Briton Scott Stammers pleads guilty to North Korean drug smuggling plot

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/aug/28/briton-scott-stammers-pleads-guilty-to-north-korean-drug-smuggling-plot

[steelepulse]

Follow up story on this Hunter guy who is supposedly working for a USA drug dealing snitch. Also a lot more details of how the local bust went down. Vice news does have some good stories.

>>

Meth, Murder, and the DEA's Mysterious Deal With the 'Most Dangerous Man in the World'

>>The mercenaries had gathered in Phuket, a tropical resort island off the west coast of Thailand, to discuss a job. They were supposed to safeguard 300 kilos of Colombian cocaine on its way from the Bahamas to New York and kill two people

https://news.vice.com/article/paul-le-roux-joseph-hunter-rambo-the-dea-meth-and-cocaine