‘Explosion of arrests': Inside the seedy underworld of Asia drug trafficking
British nationals Bella May Culley, 18, and Charlotte May Lee, 21, had been travelling around idyllic Thailand, a dream destination visited by thousands of Australians every year, and had been posting regular selfies and updates of their travels showing them on lush beaches, riding motorbikes and swimming in turquoise seas.
But their dream holiday quickly turned into a nightmares when Culley and Lee were arrested in Georgia and Sri Lanka respectively after drugs were found in their suitcases.
Lee, a former flight attendant, was arrested earlier this year at Bandaranaike Airport in Colombo, Sri Lanka, with 45kg of 'kush' - a synthetic blend of cannabis which is mixed with other ingredients such as fentanyl, tramadol, and formaldehyde used to embalm corpses - in her luggage.
The next day, Bella May Culley was arrested when she arrived at Tbilisi International Airport in Georgia with 14kg of cannabis hidden in her suitcase.
Both women had travelled from Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi airport, but had reportedly never met.
Now they could face decades of incarceration in dirty, overcrowded foreign prisons.
The fact that both women had travelled from Bangkok has raised questions about the drug trade in Southeast Asia and how young travellers may be affected and either paid or duped into transporting drugs around the world.
Their cases are far from unique - some 800 cannabis smugglers were arrested between October 2024 and March 2025 according to the British government - prompting Thai authorities to set up a joint task force between Thailand and the UK to halt drug smuggling between the two countries.
These included professional UK footballer Jay Emmanuel-Thomas who was arrested with 60kg of cannabis in his luggage when arriving back to London from Thailand in September last year.
In April this year 21-year-old Cameron Bradford was arrested in Munich in Germany after allegedly smuggling cannabis from Thailand while two more Brits were arrested in France - they had also travelled from Thailand with 33kg of cannabis in their luggage.
Gloria Lai, the regional director for Asia for the International Drug Policy Consortium, told news.com.au that there had been an explosion of arrests of British nationals travelling from Thailand over the past two years since cannabis was legalised for recreational use in the country in 2022.
It has just recently been made illegal again.
'We assume that they are being targeted, but it is strange and they have been arrested carrying large quantities which are not even for their own use,' she said.
'Why would they do that? Perhaps they are being told something misleading. For example, that cannabis is legal in Thailand and that they will be OK if they are caught carrying it out of the country. Although of course this is not the case.'
She added that Thailand's strategic location as a transit hub in the region through which thousands of people flow every day perhaps meant that drug traffickers perhaps thought there was a lower chance of couriers getting caught.
'Maybe people think it is a risk worth taking,' she added.
In response, Thailand has just announced that there will be a change in the law and that marijuana will now only be available on prescription for medical use in a move thought to be a direct response to the high-profile arrest of Culley and Lee.
The drug trade in the Golden Triangle
'The drug trade in Southeast Asia is longstanding, but in recent years it has shifted in scale and complexity. The Golden Triangle, where Myanmar, Laos, and Thailand meet, remains a major global hub for synthetic drug production, especially methamphetamine, Claudia Stoicescu, an associate professor in public health at Monash University told news.com.au.
'These drugs are moving through increasingly sophisticated trafficking routes, both across the region and into international markets. This sophistical isn't just a reflection of criminal ingenuity, it is also a direct response to punitive drug laws. Criminalisation drives the drug economy underground, pushing transnational crime groups to adapt and diversify.'
As such, it is possible that drug traffickers have been increasingly turning to young travellers to move drugs around - either using them as direct drug smugglers or as decoys that allow larger shipments to get through while the mules are arrested.
In the cases of Lee and Culley, both women have maintained that they did not know that they were carrying drugs, and that they believed they had been planted in their luggage by third parties.
How can travellers stay safe?
According to Smartaveller, visitors to Southeast Asia, and other parts of the world, should be aware of the contents of their bags, particularly when crossing international borders.
'Don't carry any items for someone else and don't leave your bags in public areas or with a stranger,' the advice said. 'Don't accept offers of new luggage or use bags that don't belong to you.'
Travellers should also invest in a lock for their luggage to protect anyone tampering with it or adding anything, including hotel staff and, terrifyingly, Smartraveller also stated that 'suitcases won as prizes in online competitions have contained illegal drugs.'
In 2013, an elderly couple from Perth were used as unwitting drug mules after winning a holiday competition. The pair, who were aged 72 and 64, were the victims of a scam which was uncovered when police found some $7 million worth of methamphetamines in the lining of their luggage.
They had entered an online competition and won two return tickets to Canada which also included a free hotel and a new set of luggage which had 3.5kg of drugs hidden in each suitcase.
'You may not be able to see the drugs, but security detection systems are likely to find them,' Smartraveller said.
What are the consequences?
The consequences of getting involved with drugs in Southeast Asia are severe, and Stoicescu said that travellers needed to be aware that the region has some of the harshest penalties in the world.
'The dominant approach is highly punitive: mass incarceration, forced drug rehabilitation and, in some cases, the death penalty for drug-related offences.'
Smartraveller said that individuals should 'never buy, use or travel with illegal drugs when overseas.'
'If you make one bad decision, you could spend years of your life in a foreign prison. Each year, over a third of Australians in prison overseas are jailed for drug offences.'
Many countries around the world have the death penalty for anyone caught using, selling or trafficking drugs, including China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, the United Arab Emirates and Vietnam - and Australians in foreign countries have received the death penalty for drug offences.
In Culley's case, she could now face life imprisonment in prison in Georgia, which is capped at 20 years, and Lee could spend up to 25 years in prison in Sri Lanka if she is found guilty of drug smuggling.
Tyrell Haberkorn, a professor of Southeast Asian Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, told news.com.au that 'drug laws in Thailand and neighbouring countries are clear and have harsh consequences, with drug offences accounting for the majority of those imprisoned.'
'Travellers should use common sense and not transport drugs or, quite frankly, anything for anyone else.'
Trials for both women will be held later this year.
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