BANGKOK, Thailand: Drug trafficking teams in Thailand are focusing on sure vacationers, together with flight attendants, to assist carry medication to different nations.
Police Main Suriya Singhakamol, Secretary-Common of the Workplace of the Narcotics Management Board (ONCB), in Thailand, stated these teams get medication from close by nations the place they’re produced in massive quantities. They then transfer the medication by Thailand by hiding them in objects like garments, espresso packets, and vases.
In neighboring Myanmar, the rising of opium poppies, that are used to make heroin, reached its highest stage in ten years in 2025, based on the U.N. Workplace on Medicine and Crime (UNODC) in December.
As a result of ongoing battle and financial issues, many farmers there are turning to unlawful drug manufacturing. Myanmar is now the world’s principal supply of unlawful opium, particularly as manufacturing in Afghanistan has gone down.
Early within the morning on June 18, a flight attendant in Bangkok acquired a message on TikTok from an unknown account. The message requested if she was flying to Australia and if she might carry objects for cash. The 30-year-old ignored it.
Just a few days later, on June 21, one other flight attendant from Thai Airways was arrested for attempting to carry multiple kilogram of heroin into Australia, hidden in tote baggage.
The Bangkok flight attendant stated she by no means replies to such messages and that airline employees are commonly warned to not carry objects for others. She requested to remain nameless as a result of the problem is delicate.
Authorities stated the TikTok account, referred to as “Powder is Powder,” was linked to drug networks that use faux social media accounts to search out individuals to move medication. The account has now been shut down, and investigations present that it used a number of names.
Thai Airways stated it has strict guidelines for workers and can cooperate with authorities.
Within the case of the arrested flight attendant, she had first posted in a social media group providing to hold objects abroad for cash. She later communicated with a Fb person and agreed to a fee of 8,800 baht (about US$265).
The heroin she carried was hidden inside the liner of luggage and was value about 500,000 Australian {dollars} on the road, based on Australian police.
Utilizing related strategies, drug networks had deliberate to ship 5 extra packages from Bangkok to Australia and Taiwan. Nonetheless, authorities stopped them and seized over 24 kilograms of heroin hidden in objects like conventional items, silk garments, espresso sachets, and winter jackets.
To date, Thai authorities have arrested two suspects, a Thai man and his spouse from Laos, who’re believed to have despatched drug parcels from a border space to Bangkok.
