My Life as an International Drug Smuggler - Drug Smuggling in Thailand

Drug Smuggling in Asia

Ok, so maybe that was a little too dramatic a title, I don’t drive around in fast sports cars snorting coke of the dashboard whilst getting head from beautiful women, I don’t have my own personal army with which to execute my enemies or traitors, in fact I haven’t even fulfilled the most basic requirements of an international drug smuggler, i.e. hiding a condom full of smack up my bottom.

But I have smuggled drugs, internationally, so I stand by my title. Before hand I gave it very little thought, having been to Thailand before I knew that the flight I was going to board later in the day was a long one, add to that the hours spent on a coach to the airport at this end, and the bus to a hotel at the other end in Thailand, plus hours spent hanging around in airports going through all the procedures at both ends and I knew that when I finally made it to a hotel in Thailand I’d be in no mood to go out exploring, not until I’d recharged my batteries, no, all that I’d want once I’d closed my hotel door would be a cheeky little smoke, and then bed.

I barely gave it a second thought, I hollowed out a stick of hair wax, placed in a small bag of weed, and then carefully refilled the wax stick smoothing it all down and remoulding it back into shape. And that was that, I left for the airport, caught my coach, boarded my plane, flew to the other end of the world, un-boarded, bus, hotel, cheeky smoke, and then sleep.

And it was a nice smoke, I enjoyed it, and then I spent the next four weeks having a great time, with a few more cheeky smokes here and there, and then I flew back home, without event. Probably the most eventless international drug smuggling story ever told, certainly few people are going to be queuing up to buy the movie rights.

But it could have turned out so differently. It was several weeks later whilst chatting to a good friend and boasting about my newly acquired status as an international drug smuggler, and a successful one at that, that the reality began to dawn on me of exactly what I had done, “Are you a twat?” my friend more told than asked me, “do you know what happens to drug smugglers in these places!” I hadn’t given it a lot of thought, I knew you weren’t supposed to do it but I hadn’t really taken into consideration the fact that what had seemed to me like a very minor offence, after all it was only a cheeky little smoke, might have seemed a whole bigger deal to the Thai authorities.

When I was younger I got caught by the police red-handed with cannabis at home in England, and received nothing more than a telling off and the confiscation of my drugs. But things can be very different elsewhere in the world, get caught even in possession of drugs let alone smuggling them into their country and you can kiss goodbye to 10-25 years of your life, or to your life full-stop.

Prison sentences in places like Thailand and Brazil are long and hard, and many never make it through them. Should you get arrested then do not expect to reap the benefits of the comparative luxury associated with life behind bars in England, prisons in these places have nothing to do with bettering their inmates, nothing to do with redemption, they do not expect or want you to come out a better person, you are there to be punished, and nothing more.

Bang Kwang Prison

Bang Kwang prison is a prison for men in Nonthaburi Province, Thailand, located about 7 miles north of Bangkok by the Chao PhrayaRiver. Bang Kwang prison is home to numerous foreign prisoners, some for drug smuggling, the Thai people know Bang Kwang prison as the ’Big Tiger’ because it eats people up.

Home to many death row and long-sentence prisoners Bang Kwang prisoners are forced to wear leg-irons for their first three months there, whilst death row prisoners have leg irons welded on.

In 2005 a Mr ‘Scott Hurford’ was caught crossing the border between Cambodia and Thailand, in his pocket he carried 250 amphetamine pills worth a total of about £130, Scott Hurford was sentenced to death. However after later pleading guilty to the crime his sentence was reduced from death to thirty years in Bang Kwang prison.

Brian Mounsey, a former prisoner in Bang Kwang Prison describes the conditions in the dormitories of this prison: "23 of us shoulder to shoulder, toe to toe, sleeping on a concrete floor in a cell, the size of a modest living room in a council house. Not very healthy. If one gets a cold or scabies (both permanent conditions) all or most get it, unavoidable when you're so full and packed in."

Bang Kwang prison is also known as the ‘Bangkok Hilton’ and is thought to be one of the ten toughest prisons in the world to exist within, it’s overcrowded, understaffed, and full to the brim with inmates barely clinging to their sanity. In the words of the ‘Khun Nattee’ the Thai Director of prisons “Thai prisons are tough, you don’t want to be in Bang Kwang!” and should you find yourself sentenced to death row you may receive as little as two hours notice before being put to death by lethal injection.

So was my cheeky little smoke, and my brief prestige as an international drug smuggler worth this risk, no.