Drug gangs use social media to recruit airline crew as couriers

Drug gangs use social media to recruit airline crew as couriers describes how Thai narcotics traffickers are allegedly using social platforms to recruit flight attendants to smuggle heroin to other countries. Police Major Suriya Singhakamol of Thailand’s Office of the Narcotics Control Board said groups source drugs from neighboring countries and move them through Thailand hidden in items such as clothes, coffee packets, and vases. On June 18 in Bangkok, a 30-year-old Thai Airways flight attendant received a TikTok message from an unknown account asking whether she was flying to Australia and could carry items for money. She ignored it, but on June 21 another Thai Airways flight attendant was arrested after trying to bring more than one kilogram of heroin into Australia hidden in tote bags. The TikTok account “Powder is Powder” was linked to networks using fake accounts and was shut down. Authorities later stopped plans for five more shipments and seized over 24 kilograms of heroin.