A 32-year-old Filipina was arrested in Thailand last week for allegedly attempting to smuggle over four kilograms of cocaine into the country, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said. In a release posted on its website, the DFA said the unidentified Filipina was arrested at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport on August 2 by operatives of the Thai Narcotics Suppression Bureau for allegedly trying to smuggle into the country about 4.16 kilograms of cocaine. The Filipina was en route to Vietnam from Lima in Peru, and was waiting in Thailand for her connecting flight when she was arrested, the release added. “She allegedly confessed that she was hired to deliver the illegal substance to an unidentified person in Vietnam," the DFA said. According to the DFA, possession of narcotics is considered a grave offense in Thailand and in almost all countries around the world, where the length of the sentence is usually commensurate to the amount of substance found on the suspect.
The Philippine Embassy in Bangkok, for its part, reminded Filipinos against accepting offers from individuals or groups to carry illegal drugs into their luggage or in their person when going abroad. The Embassy likewise disclosed a new modus operandi by drug syndicates in looking for prospective victims, where unsuspecting individuals are being lured into the trade through Internet chat rooms. Philippine Ambassador to Thailand Linglingay Lacanlale said that upon the Embassy's review of some of the drug cases involving Filipino women, it was shown that some of the victims met their victimizers through chat rooms. "Initially, the victimizer will pretend to be a potential lover or boyfriend. After weeks of online chatting, the victimizer would invite the Filipina to visit him in Thailand. Once the Filipina agrees, the victimizer sends a plane ticket and a letter of invitation to facilitate her travel.
It is usually on the Filipina's second or third return to Thailand, when her confidence has probably been won over by the potential boyfriend, that the victimizer allegedly begins his modus operandi of using the Filipina as a “drug mule," Lacanlale said in the same release. It is unknown if the recent victim was recruited using this scheme. Other Filipinos detained in Thailand for drug-related offenses admitted that they agreed to take part in the scheme to smuggle prohibited drugs for a fee ranging from US$1,000 to US$5,000. The DFA’s Office of the Undersecretary for Migrant Workers Affairs (DFA-OUMWA) said that this modus operandi of luring Filipinas as drug mules through Internet chat rooms has also been reported in Kuala Lumpur. The DFA has thus instructed the Embassy to ensure assistance to the Filipina, including legal representation in all their court appearances, consular assistance and continuous monitoring of the said case. Overseas-bound Filipino workers have fallen prey to drug syndicates recruiting couriers, also known as mules, to transport illegal drugs inside their luggage or shoes or fabric buttons. (See: 'Kindness' makes Pinays vulnerable to drug rings)
Syndicates, however, have recently come up with more dangerous ways of smuggling prohibited substances, like stuffing drugs inside the bodies of Filipino couriers. (See: Syndicates sneak, tuck, sew drugs into Pinoys)—JV,
