This archive report was first published on 8 November 2019.
On November 8, 2019, a joint operation by the Office of the Narcotics Control Board (ONCB) and the Air Interdiction Task Force (AITF) led to the arrest of a Kenyan woman at Suvarnabhumi airport in Bangkok, Thailand.
The woman, whose name has not been released, was found to have swallowed over 1.2 kilograms of cocaine in an attempt to avoid detection.
According to Niyom Termsrisuk, a Thai official, an x-ray revealed the presence of cocaine in the woman's stomach.
The woman had arrived in Bangkok from Angola and was arrested following a thorough investigation.
This incident is not an isolated case, as a Kenyan man, Glen Chibasellow Ooko, was arrested at the same airport in August 2019 for swallowing 68 packets of cocaine weighing 1.2 kilograms.
Thailand's porous borders with Myanmar and Laos, known as the Golden Triangle, make it a preferred route for drug trafficking, despite the death penalty for those found guilty.
As reported by the New York Times, the Golden Triangle's accessibility to large Asian markets, including China, facilitates the transit of narcotics.
