Drug mule case points to Thailand serving as major transit point

THE DISCOVERY of an Asian-looking man’s body in the Klong Ong Ang waste-filter in Bangkok on Sunday likely underscores the fact that Thailand is a major transit point for drug-smuggling rings. It’s also a reminder of the deadly risks of the “body packer” smuggling method. 

While Thai police try to identify the man – believed to have served as a gang’s drug mule – and an investigation is under way with a view to arresting the drug-ring members, the Institute of Forensic Medicine recently confirmed that he had died from ingesting 58 balls of crystal meth, or “ice”, a large bag of which had burst inside him.

His death by drug overdose resulting from the body-packer method – reportedly commonly used among gangs moving illicit drugs from Afghanistan’s “Golden Crescent” region around the globe – is not the first in Thailand, with several previous cases involving foreigners.

In May 2009, the body of a 45-year-old Pakistani man, Baroch Muhammad Arif-Kelci, was found with no apparent wounds.

As a urine test result was positive for drugs and the autopsy doctor found bags of drugs inside him, police suspected he had swallowed the drugs with a view to delivering them to a customer in Thailand, but the bag had burst and the drugs leaked out into his veins. 

Thai drug mules have also been found before.

An inmate at Nakhon Ratchasima’s Klong Phai Prison was found dead in his cell in June 2014, and a doctor found 20 balls of 1.65 grams of ice inside him.

Two months later, an inmate in a Khon Kaen prison was found dead after complaining of stomach pain. 

Doctors later found 12 condoms of yaba (methamphetamine) and ice inside his stomach, two of which had burst open.

According to drug-suppression agencies across the globe, an African drug-trafficking network led by Nigerians with members in a number of countries, including Thailand.

Reports from the Office of the Narcotics Control Board (ONCB) said such networks often smuggled cocaine from the South American countries of Bolivia, Peru and Columbia through Brazil to Singapore, Turkey, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Ethiopia, before moving the drugs to Thailand.

Ice, meanwhile, is transported from Mali, Nigeria, Benin, Togo and Ghana through Ethiopia to Thailand, according to the ONCB.

Networks reportedly use three main routes to smuggle heroin into China: from Thailand to India or Nepal to pick up the drugs, before taking a direct flight to China via Guangzhou, Shanghai, Beijing or Hong Kong; from Thailand to India, Nepal or the UAR to pick up heroin, before flying back to Thailand as a “rest stop” and travelling on to China; and travelling by bus from Bangkok to Songkhla to cross the border into Malaysia to pick up drugs from an African smuggler, before flying to China.

Heavy crackdowns of gang members prompted this network to hire Thai or Philippine women to transport ice or cocaine from China via Guangzhou, Hong Kong and Shenzhen into Thailand via international flights to airports in provinces other than Samut Prakan, in which Suvarnbhumi Airport is located.

To avoid detection, smugglers resort to swallowing drug balls, hiding drugs in their backsides or genitals, or in luggage.

ONCB executive Sitthisak Kalayanapradit said the African drug ring continued to move Chinese ice and South American cocaine around, although lately ice had grown more popular among drug abusers worldwide and the body-packer drug-smuggling method was mostly employed by African gangs.

“Each smuggler could swallow 2-3 kilograms of ice for transport out of a country. The ONCB has tried to intercept such criminals via Suvarnbhumi Airport, so they use other airports upcountry,” he said. 

“The ice distributed in Thailand, besides coming from African gangs moving Golden Crescent-originated drugs, comes from a Golden Triangle ring whose manufacturing base is in Myanmar’s Shan State. Both groups reportedly have something in common: they use the initial substance from India to produce yaba and ice,” Sitthisak added.

Prasong Rattanapan, director of the Safe Mekong Coordination Centre, said ice smuggling into Thailand mostly came through the North, while some entered via the Northeast.

He also revealed that Myanmar’s narcotics-suppression authority had on March 30-April 2 seized 414 kilograms of ice in Kengtung City believed to be produced by a Pangsang-based Wa group for delivery to Thailand.

“Most ice in Thailand comes from the Golden Triangle, while ice from a European country is only used among high-society people,” he said.

Thailand has joined China, Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam in launching proactive measures under the centre project to block the smuggling of initial substances and related chemicals used in narcotics-making from reaching the Golden Triangle, while also cracking down on drug-trafficking networks in each country.