Thai woman faces life in prison for smuggling 10 million baht in cocaine at Phuket Airport

A Thai woman faces life imprisonment and a fine of up to 5 million baht for smuggling 10 million baht (US$315,000) of cocaine into Thailand yesterday.

The 27 year old Thai woman was arrested on arrival at Phuket International Airport and charged with smuggling cocaine worth about 10 million baht last night.

Pol. Col. Salan Tantisasanakul, who serves as the chief of Sakhu Police Station in Phuket, today reported that Weerawan Saengwichian was apprehended when 2.3 kilograms of cocaine were discovered in her luggage upon arrival in Phuket at around 7.30pm yesterday on a flight originating from Dubai.

The customs officials were alerted beforehand about the illegal drug smuggling attempt. When her two bags went through X-ray scanning, one of them was found to contain suspicious material. Upon further inspection, the hidden compartment was found to contain packaged cocaine, Bangkok Post reported.

Weerawan is from Bangkok and had travelled from Istanbul via Dubai, where she boarded Emirates flight EK 396 to Phuket. Pol. Col. Salan stated that the investigation into the case is still ongoing.

Given the severe penalties handed out for smuggling drugs on flights, there have been multiple drug smuggling cases on flights to Thailand before and during the Covid-19 pandemic.

In December 2020, Thai authorities arrested two people who were trying to smuggle 7.5 kilograms of crystal methamphetamine from Malaysia to Thailand.

In October 2020, a man was arrested in Thailand for attempting to smuggle 1.4 kilograms of methamphetamine from India to Thailand. In August 2020, Thai police arrested a man for attempting to smuggle 111 kilograms of crystal meth from China to Thailand.

In October 2019, a British man was arrested in Thailand on charges of attempting to smuggle 6.6 kilograms of cocaine worth roughly US$660,000 onto a flight from Argentina to Thailand.

In November last year, Japanese border police arrested a Thai woman for smuggling drugs into Japan by concealing them inside her body.

The 41 year old Thai national, Wiwiew Thanachaowakornkul, arrived at Tokyo’s Narita Airport on October 15 as part of a tour group with 31 more Thai people.

The Thai Customs Department reported that drug smuggling through airports is an ongoing issue in Thailand due to the country‘s proximity to other major drug trafficking countries in Southeast Asia. They warn, however, the stiffest penalties will be imposed on those found carrying drugs.