Tourists offered free Thai holiday for smuggling weed to Britain
published : 7 Nov 2024 at 08:09
writer: Gary Boyle
ORIGINAL SOURCE/WRITER: Online Reporters
British authorities have asked Thai police to arrest Britons smuggling cannabis back to the UK in exchange for a free holiday in Thailand.
The Office of the Narcotics Control Board (ONCB) said British ambassador Mark Gooding introduced visiting officials from the UK's National Crime Agency to the ONCB last month. They asked for cooperation in preventing the smuggling of cannabis into Britain.
The UK officials said that drug smugglers were recruiting people in Britain through the Telegram chat app. They offered free tours to Thailand, plus pocket money, in exchange for smuggling cannabis back to Britain.
British authorities have been seizing hundreds of kilogrammes of cannabis smuggled from Thailand. The amount had risen significantly this year.
Police also said that on Monday they found a parcel declared to contain a dietary supplement that hid 210 grammes of a precursor for making ecstasy. The parcel was sent from the UK to a British man and a Dutchman living in Bangkok.
The ONCB said the two men had arrived in Thailand as tourists about four months ago. They were believed to be sourcing cannabis in Thailand for smuggling to Britain.
The seized cannabis was about to be mailed in parcels to Britain. Narcotics police found slips declaring the mailed parcels as containing pillows.
The Thai government legalised cannabis on June 9, 2022.
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Vocabulary
- ambassador: a senior official who lives in a foreign country and represents his or her own country there - เอกอัครราชทูต
- cannabis (noun): marijuana; a drug made from the dried leaves and flowers or resin of the hemp plant, which is smoked or eaten and which gives the user a feeling of being relaxed. Use of the drug is illegal in many countries. - กัญชา
- cooperation: working together to achieve a result that will benefit all sides - ความร่วมมือ, การทำงานร่วมกัน
- ecstasy (noun): an illegal drug, taken especially by young people at parties, clubs, etc. - ยาอี
- narcotics: illegal drugs such as heroin, cocaine or crystal methamphetamine - ยาเสพย์ติด
- officials: people who have the power to make decisions or enforce the law - เจ้าหน้าที่ผู้มีอำนาจ
- parcel: a package with something in it, sent through the mail, bigger than a letter - ไปรษณียภัณฑ์
- pillow: a soft object on which you rest your head in bed - หมอน
- pocket money (noun): a small amount of money that parents give their children, usually every week or every month; a small amount of money that you can spend on things you need or want - เงินติดตัว, เงินติดกระเป๋า
- precursor: (chemistry) a compound that participates in the chemical reaction that produces another compound - สารตั้งต้น
- prevent (verb): to stop somebody from doing something; to stop something from happening - ขัดขวาง, ป้องกัน, กัน, กีดขวาง
- recruit: to get someone to work in a company or join an organisation - จ้างงาน
- seize (verb): to take something using force - ยึด, จับกุม
- smuggler: a person who takes things or people to or from a place secretly and often illegally - ผู้ลักลอบขนสินค้าหรือคนหรือสัตว์เข้าและออกจากประเทศอย่างผิด
- smuggling: secretly and illegally taking goods or people into or out of a country or place - การลักลอบ
