Drug gangs are using social media to recruit Thai air crew as couriers

A Thai Airways flight carrying first shipments of the Sinovac vaccine approaches Suvarnabhumi airport in Bangkok, Thailand, Wednesday, Feb. 24, 2021. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

BANGKOK, July 3 - Early in the morning on June 18, a message from an unknown account slipped into the TikTok inbox of a flight attendant in Bangkok with a series of questions: “Are you flying to Australia? Do you do carry-for-hire? What is your rate?”

The 30-year-old, who flies for a regional budget carrier, ignored the message and forgot about it — until Tuesday, when a Thai Airways flight attendant was charged with importing more than one kilogram (2.2 pounds) of heroin into Australia hidden in several tote bags.

The rare detention of a national airline cabin staff has triggered alarm in Thailand, raising questions about security measures at airports and concern that international trafficking networks are targeting air crew in their attempts to get illicit drugs to lucrative markets beyond the Southeast Asian nation.

“According to reports, in the first half of this year, there have already been at least six cases of people traveling from Thailand who were charged with commercial drug trafficking,” Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul said at a meeting on Friday of the top national anti-drug committee.

“This is considered a high number... and it damages the country’s image,” he said. Thailand’s main airport operator will improve baggage screening and inspections, including those of crew members, and airlines will take serious disciplinary actions against staff carrying or accepting items on behalf of others, a government spokesperson said.

“I don’t reply to strangers like this,” the Bangkok flight attendant told Reuters, referring to the account that messaged her. She asked not to be named due to the sensitivity of the issue. “We’ve been constantly warned about this, no carry-for-hire. It’s a well-known rule.”

The unknown account — named “Powder is Powder” in Thai — was linked to drug trafficking networks that create fake social media accounts to find people to move illicit substances across borders, said Areepak Ngernbamroong, a spokesperson for Thailand’s Office of the Narcotics Control Board.

“The account has now been shut down,” Areepak said. “The ONCB is investigating, and preliminary findings indicate that the account used many different names.” In a statement following the detention, Thai Airways said it had strict rules governing the conduct of all employees and would cooperate with the relevant authorities.

Cross-border movement

After procuring drugs from neighboring countries with large production facilities, trafficking networks move the substances through Thailand concealed in items such as clothing, coffee packets, and vases, according to Thai authorities.

The cultivation of opium poppies for the production of heroin in neighboring Myanmar surged to its highest level in a decade in 2025, the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) reported in December.

War-torn Myanmar is the world’s main known source of illicit opium, amid declining production in Afghanistan, as conflict and economic hardship push more farmers into the illicit trade. In Thailand, trafficking networks target specific groups of travelers, including flight attendants, to help transport the drugs overseas, said Police Major Suriya Singhakamol, Secretary-General of the ONCB.

In the case of the Thai Airways flight attendant arrested in Australia, she had initially posted in a social media group where people offer to carry items overseas for a fee, he said.

The flight attendant then began communicating with a Facebook user named “Rose Rose,” according to Suriya. “They later agreed on a fee of 8,800 baht (US$265.46),” he told reporters.

The heroin concealed within the lining of the bags carried by the attendant had an estimated street value of A$500,000 (US$347,150), according to the Australian Federal Police.

Using similar methods, drug smuggling networks had prepared to send five more packages from the Thai capital Bangkok to Australia and Taiwan between June 30 and July 1, said Suriya.

“But authorities seized 24.38 kilograms of heroin, concealed in traditional goods, silk clothing, coffee sachets, and winter jackets,” he said, adding that Thai agencies were coordinating with Australian and Taiwanese authorities.

So far, Thai authorities have taken into custody two people, a Thai man and his Laotian wife, suspected of sending drug parcels from a border province to Bangkok.

($1 = 33.1500 baht)

($1 = 1.4403 Australian dollars)

Writing by Devjyot Ghoshal; Editing by Kate Mayberry

Also by Juarawee Kittisilpa and Panarat Thepgumpanat