Thai Police Arrest Six Peruvians For Cocaine Smuggling

[george]

Thai police arrest six Peruvians for cocaine smuggling

BANGKOK: -- Thai police on Wednesday arrested six men from Peru for attempting to smuggle 6.7 kilogrammes of cocaine into the kingdom at Bangkok's Don Muang International Airport, the country's drug suppression police chief said Thursday.

Pol. Lt-Gen. Watcharapol Prasarnrachakit, chief of the drug suppression police, told a press conference the men had swallowed the cocaine after it was divided into small portions and wrapped in plastic bags, with each of them swallowing around 100 bags.

Gen. Watcharapol said the drug carriers were part of an international cocaine trafficking ring and their arrests were made possible by intelligence cooperation between US and Thai police.

The Thai drug suppression chief said the men said they were hired at US$3,000 each by an American man to deliver the cocaine to a South American recipient in Pratunam and that they were made to swallow the drugs to avoid police detection.

According to the US police, Gen. Watcharapol said, uneducated, poor Peruvians have been drawn into smuggling drugs by handsome rewards from dealers and efforts would be made with cooperation from Peruvian authorities to suppress cocaine smuggling rings in the South American nation.

--TNA 2006-08-16

[bluie]

It's not only the boys that are in brown

[george]

Update:

Six Peruvians arrested on drug charges

BANGKOK: -- The ant-inarcotics police arrested six Peruvians on Wednesday at Don Muang Airport for allegedly smuggling 6.7 kg of cocaine into Thailand by swallowing small bags containing the drug to store it in their stomachs.

The culprits, two of them women, ingested different, though small, quantities of cocaine they had obtained in Buenos Aires. Xray films showed the bags in their stomachs and the six are now in police custody. A team of Narcotics Suppression Bureau officers earlier arrested two Thais, including a pinup model, who were members of a ring that sold Ice Drug and aphrodisiacs mainly to patrons of the nocturnal entertainment venues along Ratchadaphisek Road.

The first arrest was made on Morrokot Hemasiri after the model had sold seven grammes of Ice Drug to an undercover agent for Bt12,000 at a rendezvous near Soi Inthammara 44. The criminal's confession led to the arrest of Phana Bunyarattaphan at his apartment off Soi Vibhavadi Rangsit 18, where the police found a handgun and 32 illegal aphrodisiac tablets.

--The Nation 2006-08-16

[hardy1943]

The sad thing is they will find another 6 poor people to take their place.

A never ending battle.

[kuhnk]

Reminds me of a movie I saw recently...

http://www.apple.com/trailers/fineline/mariafullofgrace/

Sad that the real scumbags get away and the poor mules many years in a stinking Thai prison or maybe even death. Not sure about the penalty.

[todster]

forgive the ignorance but what is ' Ice Drug'

[terry57]

Reminds me of a movie I saw recently...

http://www.apple.com/trailers/fineline/mariafullofgrace/

Sad that the real scumbags get away and the poor mules many years in a stinking Thai prison or maybe even death. Not sure about the penalty.

not quite sure that we can call them poor mules ?

they decided that they would do the run and knew the consequences of playing this game with the thai authority's.

jesus mate, all the books about the big tiger and they rolled the dice and lost.

the punishment is life in frigging prison and they still had a crack.

sorry, but i aint got to much sympathy for them.

dont know if you got kids or not but if they got hooked on coke because these guys got in you might think a tad different.

any way , just my thoughts.

cheers mate

[jdinasia]

Crystal Meth in some form= ice

Edited August 16, 2006 by jdinasia

[redbean]

they were probably so ignorant to the laws here that they may have been lead into believing that it was no big deal. Sadly they are about to find out how screwed they are, literally! The rest of my life in a Thai prison or death? hmm what to do, what to do? yes Ice is like a hard core version of meth if meth isnt hard core enough.

Crystal Meth in some form= ice

[terry57]

they were probably so ignorant to the laws here that they may have been lead into believing that it was no big deal. Sadly they are about to find out how screwed they are, literally! The rest of my life in a Thai prison or death? hmm what to do, what to do? yes Ice is like a hard core version of meth if meth isnt hard core enough.

Crystal Meth in some form= ice

sorry mate,

but can you please tell me of one place on this earth where its not a big deal to smuggle coke in?

im struggling to think of one and ive been around a bit.

cheers mate

[dotcom]

What kind of people swallow condoms full of pure Cocaine? If one bursts they will be picking up the pieces with a mop.

My take? desperate people.

[bob/nyc]

Just think if they were arriving in Singapore !!

[terry57]

Just think if they were arriving in Singapore !!

actually funny as it might sound they would of been much better off getting caught in singapore as there jails are a 1000 times better than thailands big tiger.

they would of pulled a death sentence in singapore no problem but chances are they will die a real slow and horrid death in the tiger.

so be it, whats good for the goose is good for the gander.

cheers

[NovaBlue05]

$3K for their life. Unbelievably stupid.....Oh well

[Thaiquila]

they were probably so ignorant to the laws here that they may have been lead into believing that it was no big deal. Sadly they are about to find out how screwed they are, literally! The rest of my life in a Thai prison or death? hmm what to do, what to do? yes Ice is like a hard core version of meth if meth isnt hard core enough.

Crystal Meth in some form= ice

sorry mate,

but can you please tell me of one place on this earth where its not a big deal to smuggle coke in?

im struggling to think of one and ive been around a bit.

cheers mate

Bolivia?

[ringthebells]

oh well.

how many kilos went in at the same time??

just a diversion, as usual.

small invest for a big profit, sadly there were a couple of lives involved...

[Inspector 2211]

$3K for their life. Unbelievably stupid.....Oh well

Look, the minimum wage in Peru (and, by coincidence, Thailand too) is something like $100 per month, if you're lucky enough to have a job.

In other words, they did it for the equivalent of 2 1/2 years of [minimum] wages.

In the west, the equivalent would be approximately 10 times as much, $30000.

I can imagine stupid young guys would do a lot for $30000 here in the west.

It's the equivalent of a tuned up Civic or something like that, a pocket sized street racer.

There are young uneducated unemployed guys here in the U.S that would KILL for that kind of

money. And occasionally they do.

[Yan]

they were probably so ignorant to the laws here that they may have been lead into believing that it was no big deal. Sadly they are about to find out how screwed they are, literally! The rest of my life in a Thai prison or death? hmm what to do, what to do? yes Ice is like a hard core version of meth if meth isnt hard core enough.

Crystal Meth in some form= ice

sorry mate,

but can you please tell me of one place on this earth where its not a big deal to smuggle coke in?

im struggling to think of one and ive been around a bit.

cheers mate

Well, in Ecuador and Peru - I'm not sure about other S American countries, but coca leaves are chewed and left under the tongue to help cope with altitide in the Andes. Peruvians working at high altitude (like porters for those on the Inca trail for example) chew it as a matter of course. Coca tea is an accepted drink there for foreigners to allay altitude sickness. So I guess these guys didn't think it was a big deal. But I agree they should have suspected that there was a risk if so much money is being offered!

Edited August 16, 2006 by Yan

[qualtrough]

I believe the Post said they transited through KL, so they are lucky they were not busted there as they are pretty strict with the death penalty and have no compunction about hanging foreigners.

I would rather take my chances in a Thai jail than Singapore. Most foreign drug smugglers seem to get a King's Pardon within 5-10 years. If you have some money you can survive OK. You can also publish a best seller when you get out, and perhaps even get film rights.

[Yan]

they were probably so ignorant to the laws here that they may have been lead into believing that it was no big deal. Sadly they are about to find out how screwed they are, literally! The rest of my life in a Thai prison or death? hmm what to do, what to do? yes Ice is like a hard core version of meth if meth isnt hard core enough.

Crystal Meth in some form= ice

sorry mate,

but can you please tell me of one place on this earth where its not a big deal to smuggle coke in?

im struggling to think of one and ive been around a bit.

cheers mate

Bolivia?

Well, in Ecuador and Peru - I'm not sure about other S American countries, but coca leaves are chewed and left under the tongue to help cope with altitide in the Andes. Peruvians working at high altitude (like porters for those on the Inca trail for example) chew it as a matter of course. Coca tea is an accepted drink there for foreigners to allay altitude sickness. So I guess these guys didn't think it was a big deal. But I agree they should have suspected that there was a risk if so much money is being offered!

[Yan]

they were probably so ignorant to the laws here that they may have been lead into believing that it was no big deal. Sadly they are about to find out how screwed they are, literally! The rest of my life in a Thai prison or death? hmm what to do, what to do? yes Ice is like a hard core version of meth if meth isnt hard core enough.

Crystal Meth in some form= ice

sorry mate,

but can you please tell me of one place on this earth where its not a big deal to smuggle coke in?

im struggling to think of one and ive been around a bit.

cheers mate

Bolivia?

[Yan]

they were probably so ignorant to the laws here that they may have been lead into believing that it was no big deal. Sadly they are about to find out how screwed they are, literally! The rest of my life in a Thai prison or death? hmm what to do, what to do? yes Ice is like a hard core version of meth if meth isnt hard core enough.

Crystal Meth in some form= ice

sorry mate,

but can you please tell me of one place on this earth where its not a big deal to smuggle coke in?

im struggling to think of one and ive been around a bit.

cheers mate

Bolivia?

[Yan]

they were probably so ignorant to the laws here that they may have been lead into believing that it was no big deal. Sadly they are about to find out how screwed they are, literally! The rest of my life in a Thai prison or death? hmm what to do, what to do? yes Ice is like a hard core version of meth if meth isnt hard core enough.

Crystal Meth in some form= ice

sorry mate,

but can you please tell me of one place on this earth where its not a big deal to smuggle coke in?

im struggling to think of one and ive been around a bit.

cheers mate

Bolivia?

[nathansouthall]

I wonder how the police found out in the first place.... ?

[Inspector 2211]

I wonder how the police found out in the first place.... ?

At US airports, if you "look" like you could be a mule (young, single, nervous working-class traveler coming straight from, say, Columbia) they will force you to have an X-ray taken.

Conceivably, the same happens in Bangkok. For instance, a male working-class Peruvian visiting Bangkok just doesn't fit the profile of the European sex tourist. Nor the profile of the businessman.

[VicSada]

Reminds me of a movie I saw recently...

http://www.apple.com/trailers/fineline/mariafullofgrace/

Sad that the real scumbags get away and the poor mules many years in a stinking Thai prison or maybe even death. Not sure about the penalty.

not quite sure that we can call them poor mules ?

they decided that they would do the run and knew the consequences of playing this game with the thai authority's.

jesus mate, all the books about the big tiger and they rolled the dice and lost.

the punishment is life in frigging prison and they still had a crack.

sorry, but i aint got to much sympathy for them.

dont know if you got kids or not but if they got hooked on coke because these guys got in you might think a tad different.

any way , just my thoughts.

cheers mate

Dude:

if you were living in the mountains of Peru, and had a family, and had no job, and your family was starving, and some a))hole came and offerecd you 3 K US to be a mule, you would take it and kiss his A**, and say thank you, rather than let your family starve.

it is easy to judge when you sit on your fat Ar**e and make these comments, with your stomack full, some people don't have the luxury.

Personally, leagalize it, control it, tax the hel_l out of it. if not, then go after the bosses, not the poor dumg mules.

[qualtrough]

I think the Post article said the Thai cops were tipped off by overseas counterparts. I suspect that a good portion of the people busted at airports were identified even before they stepped into the airport. I have heard that large dealers will sacrifice some mules as a distraction, and that makes sense. Perhaps while all the attention was focused on this group another group or package with more drugs got through. What is clear is that the big guys almost never get busted. I am not a fan of illegal drugs, but the War on Drugs is a stupid waste of lives and money in my opinion.

[jase555]

I personally feel gutted for the 6. For the mules living in poverty being given the opportunity to improve the quality of life for their families there would've been thousands that would have taken that risk. I have little sympathy for those further up the food chain in the higher level trade. Its easy to judge but until we're really desperate none of us know what we would do. I've met many mules through my work, some were desperate, some really nice young people just incredibly naive / stupid carrying parcels for boyfriends etc but paying for the mistake for the rest of their lives.

[SamuiJens]

Just the other night I saw a program about ICE (the strongest crystal meth) that 1 try and you're hooked, and it has Nothing to do with Cocaine, which most of you are talking about.

Hope this helps someone.

[GhettoPimp]

they were probably so ignorant to the laws here that they may have been lead into believing that it was no big deal. Sadly they are about to find out how screwed they are, literally! The rest of my life in a Thai prison or death? hmm what to do, what to do? yes Ice is like a hard core version of meth if meth isnt hard core enough.

Crystal Meth in some form= ice

sorry mate,

but can you please tell me of one place on this earth where its not a big deal to smuggle coke in?

im struggling to think of one and ive been around a bit.

cheers mate

Here in Holland mate ,if you get arrested with 5 kilo coke on schiphol airport and your an antillian or colombian whatever you get send back to your homecountry without prosicution ,we have hundreds of them every year,but if you have a ducth passport you will have to go 5 years to prison maximum