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News.com.au
14 hours ago
- News.com.au
‘Explosion of arrests': Inside the seedy underworld of Asia drug trafficking
Both women looked as if they had it all. 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 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 '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 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.
ABC News
2 days ago
- ABC News
Corio pair charged after alleged carjacking in school car park in Lara
Police have arrested two people over an alleged carjacking at a school car park near Geelong on Wednesday. Detectives have been told a man approached a car in Flinders Avenue, Lara, around 7:15am, allegedly threatening the female driver before pushing her out and stealing her Mazda CX5. The 56-year-old woman, from Lara, was not injured. Geelong Crime Investigation Unit detectives arrested two people in Dural Court, Corio, on Friday morning, also recovering the stolen car. A 30-year-old Corio man has been charged with a range of unrelated offences, including theft of a motor vehicle, possessing methylamphetamine, handling stolen goods and possessing a firearm. He has been bailed to face Geelong Magistrates' Court on October 9. Meanwhile, a 38-year-old Corio woman has been charged with unrelated offences including the theft of a motor vehicle, possessing a firearm, handling stolen goods, possessing methylamphetamine and committing indictable offences whilst on bail. She has been remanded to face Geelong Magistrates' Court on August 11. Investigations into the carjacking remain ongoing. Anyone with information has been urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or visit
Sydney Morning Herald
2 days ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
South Park has lashed Trump again. So why are MAGA supporters trying to get in on the joke?
South Park has continued its satirical hammering of the Trump administration in its latest episode, taking aim at ICE, right-wing podcasters and introducing a version of Vice President JD Vance – but this time the administration and its supporters are trying to get in on the joke. The second instalment of the 27th season of the animated series dropped on Thursday, two weeks after the first episode showed President Donald Trump in bed with Satan, depicted him nude and making fun of the size of his genitalia and also featuring Trump suing the town of South Park itself. That episode attracted the ire of Trump's MAGA supporters and earned a rebuke from the White House. 'This show hasn't been relevant for over 20 years and is hanging on by a thread with uninspired ideas in a desperate attempt for attention,' White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers said in a statement. 'President Trump has delivered on more promises in just six months than any other president in our country's history – and no fourth-rate show can derail President Trump's hot streak.' What happened that week The first episode of South Park' s 27th season was released just hours after Paramount's $US8 billion merger with Skydance was approved by the US Federal Communications Commission. It also came a week after The Late Show With Stephen Colbert was cancelled, just days after that host had taken aim at Paramount's $US16 million settlement with Trump over his lawsuit against 60 Minutes, which was broadcast on the company's CBS network. Loading Trump had sued the program over the editing of a Kamal Harris interview in the lead-up to last year's US presidential election. Speculation was rife that Colbert's sacking and the settlement with Trump were an effort by Paramount to remove any potential blocks to the approval of the sale to Skydance – and South Park also referenced those incidents in the show. However, Paramount said the decision to end Colbert's show was financial, and reports later claimed the show cost the network between $US40 million and $US50 million ($61 million to $76 million) a year. At the same time, South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone reached a $US1.5 billion, five-year streaming deal with Paramount in which they also agreed to produce 10 episodes a year. Days later the first post-deal episode emerged, going on to dominate the news cycle, pleasing Trump critics and enraging his supporters and surprising the creators. 'Even just three days ago, we were like, 'I don't know if people are going to like this,'' Parker said at Comic-Con after the first episode's release. Despite the backlash, the show has clearly doubled down on its criticism of the administration and the broader ecosystem around it – even as those in the satirical firing line try to claim the joke as their own. The new episode At the core of the new episode is school counsellor Mr Mackie's new job with ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement), after he is sacked from his job in favour of Jesus (another long-running character in the show). Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem features heavily in the episode, shooting a dog within moments of her on-screen arrival (Noem admitted to killing her 14-month-old dog, Cricket, claiming it had an 'aggressive personality' and wasn't particularly good at chasing down pheasants in her memoir No Going Back). Loading The Noem character also leads various ICE raids, including one on a Dora The Explorer concert and another in heaven, while delivering the character's slogan: 'If it's brown, it goes down'. Mackie, naturally, turns out to be an effective ICE agent, setting the story up for its big finale at Mar-a-Lago. There he is welcomed by Trump and Vance, depicted in a kind of Fantasy Island motif, with Trump as Mr Roarke and Vance as the diminutive Tattoo. In an even wilder twist, earlier this week the Department of Homeland Security posted an image of ICE agents from the show, with a link to a recruitment site. Meanwhile, a subplot of the episode has Eric Cartman setting up a rival a right-wing podcast after his fellow fourth grader Clyde's podcast has huge success. Cartman is incensed by the way Clyde has leveraged the bigotry Cartman assumed was his own (taking aim at woke students, women's rights, Black people, Jewish people and others), and is determined to do a bigger and better right-wing podcast, soon calling himself a 'master debater', a gag as silly as it seems. The show uses the arc to target right-wing podcaster Charlie Kirk, with Cartman's usual beanie gone and his hair styled like Kirk, who has now changed his X profile photo to the image of Cartman in podcaster mode. Towards the end of the episode, Cartman and Clyde head to The Charlie Kirk Award for Young Master Debaters. Again, Kirk appears to have taken the jibes well, posting a clip of that scene on his X feed. Kirk also suggested that some of Cartman's rants are taken straight from his show. Why are MAGA supporters embracing the episode? Melbourne University Associate Professor in the School of Social and Political Sciences Lauren Rosewarne says the efforts to co-opt the satire are an attempt to get in on the joke and frame it for MAGA supporters. Loading Unlike The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, Rosewarne says, South Park has always had a large conservative audience, making the attempt worthwhile. 'Outsiders might think that is lame, but for insiders it's a way to express bravado in the face of a pop culture attack … for the past six months, you've seen a turn where MAGA thinks of themselves as the mainstream and this [ South Park ] is a reminder that no, you are not,' Rosewarne says. 'They feel they have a lot of cultural capital, more than the first administration... this is about them talking to their own people and reframing it: 'We are not the victims, we are in on it'. They would not do the same to Colbert.'
