Thai authorities in Samui detected a drug-trafficking pattern between March and September last year involving UK holidaymakers attempting to smuggle cannabis to the UK via Singapore. Authorities confiscated 406.6 kg of dried cannabis from tourists at Samui Airport. The British Embassy in Bangkok and the UK's National Crime Agency issued warnings due to increased arrests related to cannabis smuggling from Thailand.
THAILAND: A customs official in Samui, Thailand , said last week that authorities detected a common drug-trafficking pattern between March and September last year, in which holidaymakers from the United Kingdom attempted to bring cannabis home via Singapore.
, bringing it into the UK is against the law, and people who are found guilty may face a maximum of 14 years of jail time. UK authorities have noted that organised crime groups have been behind the increase in smuggled cannabis, and that couriers have been recruited to bring it into the UK. When sold, their profits have been greater than if they had grown the cannabis on their own.reported that Ruangyos Komoltham, the Samui Customs Office chief, said on January 28 that 406.6 kilos of dried cannabis were confiscated from tourists at Samui Airport over a seven-month period. Most of the suspects came from the UK.One of the biggest busts occurred on March 12, 2025. When officials looked into the luggage of five people from the UK and one Malaysian traveling at the Samui airport, they were able to collect cannabis flowers that weighed nearly 144 kilos. It is unknown whether the six individuals were traveling separately or together. After they were arrested, the dried cannabis was donated to Tha Chang Hospital in Tha Chang district of Surat Thani for medical use. In August 2024, the British Embassy in Bangkok, together with the UK’s National Crime Agency , already issued a stern warning concerning smuggling cannabis from Thailand. NCA officers would actively be on the lookout for travelers who carried cannabis in their suitcases. This followed a substantial uptick in the number of arrests in airports in the UK of travelers bringing in cannabis from Thailand. For example, from January to August of that year, there were 378 such arrests, of which 184 were connected to flights from Thailand.On August 9, 2024, after 510 kilos of cannabis were found in 28 suitcases, 11 British travelers were arrested. They had all come from Thailand, though they had transited through Charles de Gaulle Airport in France. /TISGdocument.addEventListener=>{ const trigger=document.getElementById; if { const observer=new IntersectionObserver=>{ entries.forEach { lazyLoader; // You should define lazyLoader elsewhere or inline here observer.unobserve; // Run once } }); }, { rootMargin: '800px', threshold: 0.1 }); observer.observe; } else { // Fallback setTimeout; } });S$4.5K a month isn’t enough? Wife urges husband to find higher-paying job before having kids‘Is S$7K still possible?’ Man questions starting pay expectations for computer science gradsSINGAPORE: More and more people are using AI these days, but why shouldn’t you use one that’s anchored in Singapore’s research ecosystem, and was made with Southeast Asian users, and with human con...Singaporeans call for ‘locals first’ policies after DPM Gan Kim Yong warns economic growth may not generate jobs anymore ‘Employees treated as replaceable parts’: NUS graduate speaks out on harsh crypto work culture in SingaporePritam Singh’s Removal: 78% of respondents disagree in an online pollSylvia Lim, Quah Kim Song celebrate their first wedding anniversary
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