Australian DJ jailed for life in Thailand

[webfact]

Jake Mastroianni: Sydney DJ jailed for life in Thailand did not have drugs on him, lawyer says

By the National Reporting Team's Dan Oakes

 

The lawyer of a young Sydney man jailed for life in Thailand for possession of ecstasy says the Australian had no drugs on his person when he was arrested.

 

Jake Mastroianni, 26, was arrested with Englishman Lance Whitmore in the tourist city of Pattaya in 2014 and received a double life sentence. That sentence was upheld on appeal in a Bangkok court yesterday.

 

Whitmore was found in possession of 200 ecstasy pills during an undercover police operation. He then led police to an apartment of Mastroianni's girlfriend, where they found another 61 pills and subsequently charged Mastroianni, who had been working as a DJ in Thailand.

 

Mastroianni's sentence was harsher than the 50 years Whitmore received, because unlike the Englishman, he refused to plead guilty.

 

Full story: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-09-08/sydney-dj-jailed-in-thailand-did-not-have-drugs-on-him-lawyer/7823548

 

-- ABC News 2016-09-08

[hyperdimension]

3 minutes ago, webfact said:

the Australian had no drugs on his person when he was arrested

 

That's a valid point. It was also his girlfriend's apartment, not his. Justice has not been served.

[dbrenn]

8 minutes ago, JerryinTH said:

 

You'd be surprised how many foreign 'DJs' are selling drugs in Bangkok on the side. In the club and after work with free home delivery as well...  

 

Not only DJS, but farangs in general of the 'designer backpacker' type. 

 

I remember when I was young, the club scene in Silom Soi 4 was full of foreigners pushing ecstasy and cocaine. A bunch of them got noticed by the Thais and they all went to jail.

[lostinisaan]

49 minutes ago, spidermike007 said:

 

 

It is so refreshing to hear such progressive thought, on this forum. There is so much nonsensically harsh dribble, when it comes to drugs. If I had my way, all drugs would be legalized. Even heroin. If one has the cash, one can always find it. Does making it illegal make it harder to find? Usually. Does it prevent people from using? Almost never. Do the laws destroy lives and families? Yes, absolutely. When someone is locked up for five years for relatively soft drugs like ecstasy and pot, it destroys lives unnecessarily. It does not accomplish anything. And there are people getting locked up here for pot possession, if they do not have the 100,000 baht to "be let off". 

 

Locking someone up for life for possession of 61 pills is the very height of insanity, and social disorder. It is emblematic of a broken system, and a government that has lost sight of it's vision and priorities. It is Saudi style justice. And only the poorest of the poor get treated this way here. Is that justice?

 

    Spot on. I'd also legalize all drugs, then you wouldn't have people who use Jabba, the drug for sex workers and guys who don't really have/see a future.

   Tax all the dope, 2 Euro for hand rolled Afghani would be affordable,  taxes on heroin, cocaine and speed would help to pay for therapies when people become addicted and want to get off.

 

   When I look at our history I really want to throw up. Air America isn't just a movie, it really happened, very close to Isaan in Laos. They used tax payer's money and Army planes to transport goods, but do the youngsters these days know much about it? I doubt it. 

 

         CIA involved producing heroin which later was sold on America's roads where plenty of junkies died overdoses because they never had such a purity.

 

  What about the deals weapons for cocaine, also including the CIA, some guys from the DEA and FBI. Money rules.

 

      Didn't America "classify" what a drug is, while you can buy hard liquor almost everywhere? All the shit from the States finally reached Europe, starting with addicted Vietnam soldiers who came back heroin addicted and they found ways to get China white from Holland and continued their habit.

 

   They couldn't send the addicted guys back to the States and tried to "get them clean" in Germany. I grew up near such a base and saw what happened...

 

     That's how the heroin wave in Germany started. Then the crack, I remember when cops had no idea that there were already about 5,000 crack addicts in Frankfurt, because they thought they'd smoke hashish in their little pipes...and that's okay there.

 

  I'm not allowed to involve anybody from this country being a very big fish in the heroin trade, but the past is really sad.

 

   Now we're talking about tons of heroin that killed thousands of people./

 

      But there's a young Aussie who got caught with 61, in words sixty one Ecstasy pills, which seems to be part of being a disc jockey. 

 

    And to reach the peak, there are really people who believe that the poor guy should be executed. Executed because he lived his life in a way he wanted?

 

    Did anybody write that he sold one pill? At least I didn't see anything that he's a dealer.

 

     Did the coppers help a little bit and put some pills in his bag to extract some money?   We don't even know that, but some wish him the death penalty. What a fragged up world this is.

 

   

 

        

'

 

   

Edited September 8, 2016 by lostinisaan

[z42]

23 minutes ago, webfact said:

Jake Mastroianni: Sydney DJ jailed for life in Thailand did not have drugs on him, lawyer says

By the National Reporting Team's Dan Oakes

 

The lawyer of a young Sydney man jailed for life in Thailand for possession of ecstasy says the Australian had no drugs on his person when he was arrested.

 

Jake Mastroianni, 26, was arrested with Englishman Lance Whitmore in the tourist city of Pattaya in 2014 and received a double life sentence. That sentence was upheld on appeal in a Bangkok court yesterday.

 

Whitmore was found in possession of 200 ecstasy pills during an undercover police operation. He then led police to an apartment of Mastroianni's girlfriend, where they found another 61 pills and subsequently charged Mastroianni, who had been working as a DJ in Thailand.

 

Mastroianni's sentence was harsher than the 50 years Whitmore received, because unlike the Englishman, he refused to plead guilty.

 

Full story: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-09-08/sydney-dj-jailed-in-thailand-did-not-have-drugs-on-him-lawyer/7823548

 

-- ABC News 2016-09-08

 

If the story put forth by the ABC group is true then it is ABSOLUTELY disgusting for the Australian suspect to even have spent an hour in jail. It seems to suggest that the drugs were not proven to be his, and furthermore were discovered in his GIRLFRIEND's apartment. So where exactly does she fit into this tangled web exactly.
This has gone from disgraceful to immoral / depraved. What kind of judges / justice system is happy to dish out life sentences without seemingly any concrete evidence at all (rhetoricl question obviously). This is ranking alongside the Koh Tao fiasco for me. Just wow,  incredibly scary to think just how easy it is to put someone in the frame for life sentences here. Genuinely shocked and horrified for this guy's family

[yogi100]

On 07/09/2016 at 3:30 AM, RaoulDuke said:

I have had more bad experiences than I would ever want to remember with alcohol. Never had that problem with MDMA, LSD, or mushrooms. It is horribly hypocritical and ignorant for anyone who drinks beer, wine, hard alcohol, as well as people addicted to nicotine and caffeine to run around saying how evil all drugs are. The crap at the pharmacy causes far greater harm than most party drugs. Only weak minded people prone to addiction have problems with these drugs. Pcp, heroine, and cracked are hard drugs. MDMA is 6-8 hours of feeling happy and forgetting just what a truly horrible world we live in, and the come-down is a billion times less harsh than the average hangover.

 

When I was younger five of my friends or acquaintances died prematurely from drug overdoses, they started on marijuana and speed and wound up on heroin.

Two others in accidents, no drugs or booze involved

One committed suicide after a failed love affair, again no booze or drugs involved.

None died of drink.

 

In more recent years four people I knew have died of drink when they were in their fifties and two took their own lives in their late fifties. Now they're falling victim to more natural ailments.

 

 

Edited September 8, 2016 by yogi100

[Scouse123]

Reading further into this with more information available it starts to make a little cock eyes sense as to how they reached their verdict.

 

As I mentioned in a previous post, there was no way I believed they can or could give two life sentences for 61 pills. It has transpired that he was given lousy legal advice from the outset. I am not saying the foreigner whose law office is now defending him has fared any better as there is a limit as to what can be done in these circumstances. The foreign law firm just like any Thai law firms are in it purely for the money.

 

However, it looks now like he has been charged twice. Once for the 61 pills found at his girlfriends apartment and then a joint charge with Lance Whitmore on the 200 pills. So there will be two charges of possession with intent to sell.

 

It really is ' pushing it to the limit ' the charges of possession with intent to supply/sell ' and what they have done this to the Australian lad.

 

1. He had no drugs at all on his person.

 

2. The drugs found at the apartment was not his apartment but a ' girlfriend ' so, why has she not been charged as the apartment belonged to her??  There is a charge in cases like this in Thailand called ' Loo um ' This basically means jointly, as a group, together '  and is used in a number of cases where they catch a number of Thais but nobody is putting their hands up to responsibility. They charge the lot of them and let the courts decide. However, they have charged the Aussie Jake with this alongside Lance, but not by the look of it charged the Thai girl.

 

3.If it develops she is some bar or working girl, the chances are she is in with the police or other than that, he has taken the fall for her.

 

He could and should totally have denied responsibility for this. Lance Whitmore was caught red handed but it looks like this guy has been taken down as a ' patsy ' or maybe the police believed he had plenty of cash to give them and was withholding it because oi his status as an international DJ.

 

Whatever, Jake has had the rough end of this deal. A Supreme court should throw this out but from what I believe they are not going to pursue this as it could take 6-8 years and they cannot apply for prisoner transfer with the case still in the court nor will they get amnesties or good behavior reductions until the case is finished.

[thai3]

38 minutes ago, hyperdimension said:

 

That's a valid point. It was also his girlfriend's apartment, not his. Justice has not been served.

 

Justice is rarely served in Thailand, people either get away with murder cos of who they are or get insane sentences like this poor sod, despicable.

[gemguy]

4 hours ago, jacnl2000 said:

 

What I tried to write down in here might only be one of the many possible answers to your question:

 

harsh human systems always have had a strong tendency to keep on corrupting themselves. In these two particular cases additional room for negotiation, outside a court of law, might have been much less, than normally, in other parts of society. Once having reached a court of law, rules of society quite sudden loose their appeal, complexity and nuance, so do become so simple that rotten apples can simply be taken out of the basket quickly and be send to prison for quite some time. However, in most other cases, which do never ever reach a court of law, mainly fear plays its role: rotten apples are simply being replaced silently and locally protected by their replacements who actually do know how to consume apples from the poison tree.

 

Sometimes their mentality is based on making an example of someone while also making a very strong public statement.... and that being:

DO NOT CONSUME OR SELL DRUGS THAT ARE DEEMED ILLEGAL IN "THIS" COUNTRY....unless you can afford it...lol

I think this guy is swept up in the new order of law enforcement fervor......unfortunately for him.

5 years or maybe 10 at the most is more than sufficient and more than enough time for anyone to realize the error of their ways....however,  the judges and the courts here in Thailand are often persuaded by emotion rather than logical sensibilities.

What is additionally disturbing is how the severe penalties are served upon the little guy, as per usual, while those involved serving justice and given the task of pursuing the criminal elements in Thai society, seldom if ever, seriously think about pursuing the affair any further than arresting the small guy and prosecuting the small guy while they proudly glorify themselves as the nations heroes saving the nation from the evils of illegal drug use.

Meantime they know full well who supplied the little guy and who exactly manufactures the Yaa Baa on a grand scale but, as to be expected, they ignore all of that and press forward with the prosecution of the end users and the ever vulnerable small time fish..

Meantime, everything else entailed remains the same.....and will never change as even the perpetrated criminal activities, no matter how nefarious or heinous they be, also evolve based on the values and mentality of a hierarchical structured society. ...that works against any serious efforts to hold the truly nefarious and untouchable criminals accountable...as long as you are not amongst the "little guys" sacrificed on behalf of the big guys...that have to be shown respect for being the big guys or somehow  becoming the big guys and maintain their exulted positions of influence and power and or wealth.

Cheers

Edited September 8, 2016 by gemguy

[bark]

On 7/9/2559 at 9:50 AM, kmj said:

I wonder at what point did they think "Hmm maybe it's not such a good idea to deal drugs in a country like Thailand" ?

 

I'm guessing not long after they were caught... obviously not before they started dealing.

In Indonesia they shoot them. Firing squad.

[smedly]

a guy I knew was at a friends house for a party, he slept in one of the bedrooms, the police raided the house and searched, they found drugs in the bedroom he was staying in and he got banged up, the guy who owned the house claimed the drugs were not his.

 

He was locked up for 2 years and eventually got bail, at one point he was intending to attend the court and then someone suggested that he might be better not taking the risk of a very possible and probable lengthy jail term and to flee the country never to return, that is exactly what he did, he paid a fisherman to drop him on a beach in Malaysia and then made his way to the British embassy there and said he had lost his passport - he made it back to the UK 

 

The moral of the story - choose your friends very carefully in Thailand and stay well away from those you know to be involved with drugs

[Don Mega]

18 minutes ago, bark said:

In Indonesia they shoot them. Firing squad.

How many have faced the firing squad for a baggy of pills ?

[Andrew65]

34 minutes ago, yogi100 said:

 

When I was younger five of my friends or acquaintances died prematurely from drug overdoses, they started on marijuana and speed and wound up on heroin.

Two others in accidents, no drugs or booze involved

One committed suicide after a failed love affair, again no booze or drugs involved.

None died of drink.

 

In more recent years four people I knew have died of drink when they were in their fifties and two took their own lives in their late fifties. Now they're falling victim to more natural ailments.

 

 

Two guys that I knew since I was a kid died in small-town England from heroin-related causes. I believe they both started out on cannabis (a gateway drug apparently).

 

One of these guys choked on his own vomit in the police cells, after mixing methadone with booze, the other, my cousin, from a  heroin overdose.

 

Then again, I know a guy who is in his 70's and must have done (lots of) every drug known to man and is still alive & kickin'!.

 

I think there are similarities in how booze/drugs can affect different people.

[harrry]

On 9/7/2016 at 10:59 AM, Chicog said:

 

Because that is the primary condition of the prisoner exchange program.

 

If he gets as far as as being in an Aussie prison, his only chance of early release is still a royal pardon.

But it does happen:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandra_Gregory

 

 

The Australian exchange program states that the person will serve the entire sentence but will be entitled to the same remissions and parole that he would have recieved if he had remained in Thailand.  

 

[lostinisaan]

1 hour ago, dbrenn said:

I feel sorry for his ruined young life but anyone who sells drugs in Thailand, infamous for its Bangkok Hilton, is an absolute idiot. He had a job as a DJ already so his drug dealing sideline was sheer greed 

 

  How do you know that he was dealing drugs? Now it turned out that the pills were found in his "girl friend's" room. How does that make him to a drug selling guy?

 

     Not trying to make any assumptions, but what if the woman in question sold some drugs with the knowledge of the BIB?

 

      Why was the woman not even involved in the whole process? Just wondering who the idiot here is. 

[Scouse123]

13 minutes ago, harrry said:

The Australian exchange program states that the person will serve the entire sentence but will be entitled to the same remissions and parole that he would have recieved if he had remained in Thailand.  

 

 In the UK it is ' half of the balance ' left to serve at transfer.

 

So if you got twenty years and served four in Thailand you would serve a further eight in the UK and be freed on licence for the other eight.

 

You would also get the good behavior class that you had in Thailand to deduct time from your sentences and also to any government of Royal amnesties from Thailand.

 

Different countries have different agreements. No allowances are made for Thailand's poor justice system or weak cases.

[hyperdimension]

3 hours ago, joeyg said:

Some even promoting it for their children.

 

 

If you have children, have you given them at least a sip of tea, coffee, or a cola drink? If so, you have supplied recreational drugs to your children.

 

I don't think anyone would actually directly promote recreational drugs to children. But the reality is that, if they are social, they will very likely be exposed to recreational drugs, including ethanol, the legal but very harmful drug. It is important that they are well-informed of the important facts of each drug that they may be exposed to, and those fact must have scientific basis and not based on recycled scare-mongering propaganda. Based on facts and statistics, they will logically reason that Cannabis and MDMA are actually less harmful to consume than ethanol even if you don't explicitly tell them. The recommendation from a parent should of course be complete abstinence from recreational drugs, but if the children were intent to try one from a number of available drugs, at least they would be armed with the knowledge of which ones would be least harmful and how to minimize the harms of whatever they chose to consume.

 

One of the worst harms is getting caught with illegal drugs by authorities, because the consequences may be worse than the negative effects of the drug itself, and this should additionally be highlighted.

 

What is important is that the child trusts you and is comfortable in discussing such issues openly with you. If all you tell them is "never take drugs or I'll punish you harshly" then they will never confide in you about their drug consumption if they ever do partake in it (against your wishes), and you will then have no leverage. If they engage in unsafe drug consumption, you may not know until it's too late. Yes, there is such a thing as safe drug consumption, even for drugs that are currently illegal; e.g. one simple rule of safety is to avoid consuming different drugs in combination (especially ethanol).

 

This report has some good guidelines: Safety First: A Reality-Based Approach to Teens and Drugs by Drug Policy Alliance

[soalbundy]

3 minutes ago, Scouse123 said:

 In the UK it is ' half of the balance ' left to serve at transfer.

 

So if you got twenty years and served four in Thailand you would serve a further eight in the UK and be freed on licence for the other eight.

 

You would also get the good behavior class that you had in Thailand to deduct time from your sentences and also to any government of Royal amnesties from Thailand.

 

Different countries have different agreements. No allowances are made for Thailand's poor justice system or weak cases.

When i read about the weak sentencing in the UK for GBH and murder that sounds OK at least they get to serving some time

[lostinisaan]

18 minutes ago, Andrew65 said:

Two guys that I knew since I was a kid died in small-town England from heroin-related causes. I believe they both started out on cannabis (a gateway drug apparently).

 

One of these guys choked on his own vomit in the police cells, after mixing methadone with booze, the other, my cousin, from a  heroin overdose.

 

Then again, I know a guy who is in his 70's and must have done (lots of) every drug known to man and is still alive & kickin'!.

 

I think there are similarities in how booze/drugs can affect different people.

 

 You're one of quite a few posters who write the same old crap that's just not true. It's not that you all in a sudden need harder drugs, once you've started smoking pot. Pot guys don't wanna hang out with junkie   

The only reason why you might think that Cannabis was the cause that finally killed your friends is that all of these drugs are illegal and people need to go to certain places where also other drugs are available.

 

       I've worked with/for hard drug addicts many years, visited them in prison, then brought them to a therapy, but sadly many of them died overdosed on the day when they left their therapy before the end, or when they came back to the same old ":friends" and took the same amount they were on before.

 

   I've lost quite a lot of friends who died overdosed, or AIDS killed them after needle sharing, because people couldn't buy their "equipment" at a drug store for a long time. A lot others died of Hep. C/D/E.....

 

    It's just not true that Cannabis is making people to hard drug addicts. Sorry, for being a little off topic. 

[soalbundy]

3 minutes ago, lostinisaan said:

 

 You're one of quite a few posters who write the same old crap that's just not true. It's not that you all in a sudden need harder drugs, once you've started smoking pot. Pot guys don't wanna hang out with junkie   

The only reason why you might think that Cannabis was the cause that finally killed your friends is that all of these drugs are illegal and people need to go to certain places where also other drugs are available.

 

       I've worked with/for hard drug addicts many years, visited them in prison, then brought them to a therapy, but sadly many of them died overdosed on the day when they left their therapy before the end, or when they came back to the same old ":friends" and took the same amount they were on before.

 

   I've lost quite a lot of friends who died overdosed, or AIDS killed them after needle sharing, because people couldn't buy their "equipment" at a drug store for a long time. A lot others died of Hep. C/D/E.....

 

    It's just not true that Cannabis is making people to hard drug addicts. Sorry, for being a little off topic. 

You have some nice friends, even in the 60's and 70's in London not one of my friends tried drugs

[Franky Bear]

1 hour ago, bark said:

In Indonesia they shoot them. Firing squad.

How many Australian drug dealers have they shot dead now?

[soalbundy]

2 minutes ago, Franky Bear said:

How many Australian drug dealers have they shot dead now?

far too few

[Franky Bear]

15 minutes ago, soalbundy said:

far too few

have you got a ball park figure please?

[JerryinTH]

In Malaysia it would have been an instant execution as well. No need to rot on death row and wait for your execution. 

Now if you look at the USA how many innocent people get OFF death row each year.. 

This world is far from united or anything close to that. Even the EU has different rules and penalties on drugs. 

[Andrew65]

1 hour ago, yogi100 said:

 

When I was younger five of my friends or acquaintances died prematurely from drug overdoses, they started on marijuana and speed and wound up on heroin.

Two others in accidents, no drugs or booze involved

One committed suicide after a failed love affair, again no booze or drugs involved.

None died of drink.

 

In more recent years four people I knew have died of drink when they were in their fifties and two took their own lives in their late fifties. Now they're falling victim to more natural ailments.

 

 

 

Two guys that I knew since I was a kid died in small-town England from heroin-related causes. I believe they both started out on cannabis (a gateway drug apparently).

 

One of these guys choked on his own vomit in the police cells, after mixing methadone with booze, the other, my cousin, from a  heroin overdose.

 

Then again, I know a guy who is in his 70's and must have done (lots of) every drug known to man and is still alive & kickin'!.

 

I think there are similarities in how booze/drugs can affect different people.

 

I do think the "war on drugs" has been an utter failure. The UN, G20 or some other international body need a total rethink on the illict drugs. (I am not a user myself, so I'm speaking from quite a neutral standpoint).

 

Over the last four decades the hard-pressed US taxpayer has dished out around US$1 trillion in the  "war on drugs", according to the Huffington Post.

[soalbundy]

13 minutes ago, Franky Bear said:

have you got a ball park figure please?

anything less than all of them

[soalbundy]

15 minutes ago, Franky Bear said:

have you got a ball park figure please?

double post

Edited September 8, 2016 by soalbundy

[Michael8511]

1 hour ago, Don Mega said:

How many have faced the firing squad for a baggy of pills ?

I think when you do drugs or live with people that are using or selling drugs and you know it's illegal there will always be chance that you can be outed like in this case or caught in a raid you have to make the desition what will be in your best interest.  If you choose to take a chance don't cry when you get sentenced. We don't know in this case what the English guy told the police to try to save his life and get a short sentence. He's lucky that Thailand don't use death penalty for drugs anymore. out of the 30 some countries that have death penalty for drugs it's still 13 where it's mandatory' Indonesia and Saudi is 2 of them.

[spidermike007]

2 hours ago, z42 said:

 

If the story put forth by the ABC group is true then it is ABSOLUTELY disgusting for the Australian suspect to even have spent an hour in jail. It seems to suggest that the drugs were not proven to be his, and furthermore were discovered in his GIRLFRIEND's apartment. So where exactly does she fit into this tangled web exactly.
This has gone from disgraceful to immoral / depraved. What kind of judges / justice system is happy to dish out life sentences without seemingly any concrete evidence at all (rhetoricl question obviously). This is ranking alongside the Koh Tao fiasco for me. Just wow,  incredibly scary to think just how easy it is to put someone in the frame for life sentences here. Genuinely shocked and horrified for this guy's family

 

 

A Thai judge, acting upon an order from up on high. Or a judge just acting normally when the defendant refuses to pay either the police, or the judiciary. The poor are the only ones here who serve long sentences. Always remember that. This has NOTHING to do with justice. Nothing. 

[AlexRich]

3 minutes ago, Michael8511 said:

I think when you do drugs or live with people that are using or selling drugs and you know it's illegal there will always be chance that you can be outed like in this case or caught in a raid you have to make the desition what will be in your best interest.  If you choose to take a chance don't cry when you get sentenced. We don't know in this case what the English guy told the police to try to save his life and get a short sentence. He's lucky that Thailand don't use death penalty for drugs anymore. out of the 30 some countries that have death penalty for drugs it's still 13 where it's mandatory' Indonesia and Saudi is 2 of them.

 

And in both Indonesia and Saudi you will find drugs and drug users ... so it just simply doesn't work. These two guys were stupid, and deserve to be in jail ... but the sentence is way too high, and bears no relation to the crime.