Drug networks turn to TikTok and Facebook to recruit Thai cabin crew as heroin couriers
A flight attendant for a regional budget airline in Bangkok received an unusual message from an unknown TikTok account early on June 18. It asked whether she flew to Australia, whether she did “carry-for-hire” work, and what her rate would be. She ignored it.
Weeks later, on Tuesday, a Thai cabin crew member was charged in Australia with importing more than one kilogramme of heroin, hidden inside several tote bags.
“I don’t reply to strangers like this,” the 30 year old flight attendant told Reuters, asking not to be named due to the sensitivity of the case. “We’ve been constantly warned about this, no carry-for-hire. It’s a well-known rule.”
Fake accounts target cabin crew
The account that messaged her, named ‘Powder is Powder’ in Thai, has since been shut down. The Office of the Narcotics Control Board (ONCB) said it was linked to trafficking networks that create fake social media profiles to find couriers willing to move drugs across borders.
“The account has now been shut down,” said ONCB spokeswoman Areepak Ngernbamroong. “The ONCB is investigating, and preliminary findings indicate that the account used many different names.”
THAI Airways said it enforces strict conduct rules for all employees and would cooperate with the relevant agencies.
The cabin crew member charged in Australia, named as Meena, 26, had posted in a social media group where people offer to carry items overseas for a fee. She began messaging a Facebook user called ‘Rose Rose’ and the two agreed on a fee of 8,800 baht (US$240), according to ONCB secretary-general Pol Maj Suriya Singhakamol.
The heroin sewn into the lining of her bags had an estimated street value of A$500,000, the Australian Federal Police said.
Loei couple held over Bangkok parcels
Using similar tactics, the same network had prepared five more packages for shipment from Bangkok to Australia and Taiwan between June 30 and July 1. Police seized 24.38 kilogrammes of heroin concealed in traditional handicrafts, silk clothing, coffee sachets and winter jackets before the parcels could be sent, Pol Maj Suriya said. Thai agencies are coordinating with Australian and Taiwanese counterparts on the case.
Two suspects, a Thai man and his Lao wife, named as Arthit, 43, and Thatsaphon, 42, have been detained over the alleged shipment of drug parcels from the northern border province of Loei to Bangkok for onward transport.
The case comes as opium poppy cultivation in Myanmar, the world’s main known source of illicit opium, rose to its highest level in a decade last year, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime reported in December. Conflict and economic hardship in Myanmar have pushed more farmers into the trade, while production in Afghanistan continues to decline, reported Bangkok Post.
The story Facebook account ‘Rose Rose’ linked to Thailand-Australia heroin ring as seen on Thaiger News.
