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Home » News from Thailand » Thai woman (26) gets life imprisonment for smuggling more than 5.000 XTC pills from the Netherlands
Thai woman (26) gets life imprisonment for smuggling more than 5.000 XTC pills from the Netherlands
Posted in News from Thailand
Tags: Crime, drug smuggling, Lifetime, The Netherlands, XTC
Photo: Archive
26-year-old Ampika Patitang from Nong Khai province was sentenced to life imprisonment yesterday for smuggling 5.731 XTC pills from the Netherlands, two other suspects were acquitted due to lack of evidence.
The woman was apprehended at Suvarnabhumi Airport on March 8, 2018, with 2,6 kg of pills in their luggage. During the police interrogation, Ampita admitted that she and the two other suspects had bought the XTC pills in the Netherlands for sale in Thailand. They had invested 280.000 baht for this.
The court found Ampika guilty of smuggling the drugs into Thailand and possessing the drugs with the intent to sell them. Initially, the death sentence was pronounced, which has been commuted to life imprisonment because she confessed.
Source: Bangkok Post
Well, the Netherlands now has the reputation of being a narco state. Almost all synthetic drugs sold worldwide come from the Netherlands. But apparently no one cares, because you rarely hear anything about it. Politicians do not intervene and judges give serious drug criminals community service and ankle bracelets that you can cut through. And so our country is slipping further and further to a questionable level. Source: https://www.ad.nl/binnenland/nederland-narcostaat-achter-xtc-pilletje-zit-miljardenindustrie~af7ebc37/
Well, that is not the case for Yaba, which is mainly manufactured in Thailand itself, Laos and Burma and unfortunately has many Thai addicts on its conscience. And despite the fact that Thailand's penalties for drug offenses and drug possession are among the highest in the world, that doesn't seem to be enough of a deterrent to reduce drug use and trafficking. That deterrence also does not seem to be enough for the Dutch in foreign prisons, most of whom have to undergo their sentence because of drugs.
The difference is that Yaba is highly addictive. Ecstasy is not.
Peter formerly Khun, '..Almost all synthetic drugs sold worldwide come from the Netherlands…' .
Well, if only Thailand would get rid of the mass transit of meth. The 'world leader' in meth is still Myanmar (also the number 2 producer of opium after Afghanistan) and enormous amounts of methamphetamine enter Thailand from Laos in the Nakhon Phanom region every day, which are sold all the way down under.
For the enthusiast: https://tinyurl.com/y3zdmu3g
But wherever that mess comes from, it will be your child who is wasting his or her life on that stuff. Unfortunately, only the little messengers are caught as J rightly points out below.
First of all, the government is doing everything it can to prevent the production of synthetic drugs, but it is anything but an easy task. In addition, the penalties are indeed on the low side, but the biggest problem is that in many countries a lot is paid for it. This keeps production attractive. The last sentence: “and so our country continues to slide to a questionable level” is such a ridiculous sentence that you make yourself completely unbelievable, apart from the fact that it has nothing to do with the subject.
But your source does not point to your claim that serious criminals receive community service and/or ankle bracelets. That populist statement is also not underlined by facts. If you on http://www.rechtspraak.nl look, you will see enough convictions (for such crimes) with prison sentences of 4 to 8 years.
Also here on the blog there is a lot of support for Mr van Laarhoven when it comes to his prison sentence. But “victory begins at home”; People like van Laarhoven get away with it (partly in the Netherlands), because we have set up an idiotic system in which use and trade (to a certain extent) is allowed, but cultivation is not. In addition, for example, 500 grams may be sold, but the “demand” is more and that goes “black” (and that is what Van Laarhoven was guilty of, because if he had followed the rules, he would have who can never ever earn millions (a tried and tested approach of the FIOD and also for which Al Capone was once arrested: not for his murders and trafficking in illegal liquor, but for tax evasion).
In short, we shout murder and fire about drugs, but we also think it's sad when people go to jail for it. That is of course inevitable and we cry crocodile tears. Although I must say that life imprisonment is also a very long sentence.
I think a drug offender engaged in a multi-billion dollar business would almost see a prison sentence of 4 to 8 years as community service. Doesn't that have some deterrent effect? Suppose you get caught and have to grumble for 5 years. If you get out, you're a multimillionaire. Well, those 5 years can still be endured.
I'm not saying they should have life in prison, but a 15-year minimum bar should anyway.
Well Dennis, I read that you are an expert or maybe a psychic?
Because what you write '..and that is what Van Laarhoven was guilty of, because if he had followed the rules, he could never have earned millions…' is very premature because the man has not even had a summons for his criminal case in the Netherlands! So you talk from your gut feeling.
V Laarhoven has nothing to do with XTC.
V Laarhoven has adhered to the law in NLD with the legal sale of Weed.
It seems that van Laarhoven has quite a few so-called fans, who scream how badly this man is treated.
As a criminal you are almost placed on a pedestal in NL.
Nothing wrong? Believe it yourself Marcel and all those other followers.
Wake up and read the complete story of this man, instead of just naming where justice has failed
Messrs Kanchanaburi and Lagemaat, van L has not been convicted of anything in the Netherlands, so the use of the word criminal is misplaced. In Dutch law you are only a criminal if the judge pronounces that.
And as far as money laundering is concerned, Thailand considers ALL drug money illegal and buying a property with it is money laundering under Thai law. Whether Thailand rightly 'looks across the border' in these procedures will be determined by the outcome of the current appeal.
Then he could have used that "legal" money in Thailand to buy a house.
Why money laundering?
Not now, but since the 16th century, the Netherlands has been the market leader in drugs.
https://isgeschiedenis.nl/nieuws/opiumhandel-van-de-voc
After that it collapsed a bit, but luckily WW-1 brought a solution.
https://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2015/11/27/nederland-was-in-wo-i-grootste-producent-van-coca-1559818-a273975
That a donkey has now been caught, which probably acted out of need for money, is not world news to me, it was probably sacrificed to smuggle in a multiple.
The comparison with van Laarhoven is still touching, van Laarhoven was deliberately screwed by the Public Prosecution Service, I hope that the truth will come to light again, and the guilty will be held accountable.
The names you encounter in the book of the VOC are very interesting, even the Oranges have made their fortune in the opium trade.
GeertP,
Until 1957, the production, trade and use of opium in Thailand was also legal. It became criminal from one day to the next.
Many fortunes in Thailand have also been built on opium. Up to the highest circles.
Another victim of the underworld
You're wrong.
A victim of greed
The Netherlands is much too soft in all its actions, you are almost ashamed to say that you are Dutch, see the drug policy and the laundering of criminal money and there is more.
Yes harder punishment: beer (is drugs!) behind the wheel = life sentence. Making a victim = firing squad. Harder punishment helps. Jailed for 10+ years in drug trafficking and reaping your criminal assets via PlukZeWet is a weak bite… (sarcasm).
Soft drugs should not be legalized from A to Z, even though there is a great demand for them. Meanwhile, other countries are passing us by with a legal soft drugs circuit.
I'm not into soft drugs myself (no joints, magic mushrooms or ecstasy for me), do drink a few glasses of the legal hard drug alcohol a week.
It makes you think about the morals of many we find in the Netherlands. Trading country par excellence in these kinds of pills and the overdriven tolerance policy is partly to blame for the fact that so much rubbish is made for the trade and wealth of those who aim for this. Incidentally, a lot of attention is paid to combating the production of hard drugs in the Netherlands by the police and the judiciary. I can testify to this. However, it is mopping with the tap open, because swallowing those pills is apparently Valhalla for many who purchase this. Big business and basis for possibly more people who want to launder their money in the worldly paradises. The fact that people think differently and are punished in Thailand should not sound strange to a Thai. What drives these people to do this? Repentance comes after sin, but being stuck in a filthy place all your life for these pills and gain. I give it to her. Yes, things done don't take time. On to the next one, because poverty and temptation are, among other things, motives to commit all kinds of things that cannot stand the light of day and are probably typified as criminal offenses somewhere in a book and that can burn your nose.
If one wanted to eliminate the illegality of anything (ecstasy, weed, cocaine, etc.), the only solution is to legalize it, control it, and start taxing it. The USA invests huge sums of money in Colombia and Peru to stop the production of cocaine, but that doesn't work. The farmers who grow coca there do so legally because they also want to eat something today and tomorrow. Production of XTC will continue, no matter how hard people fight it. The price will only rise, nothing more and nothing less. The same goes for Weed. It is available all over the world. Extermination is not possible and should not be the goal.
What I wonder: why is that woman doing this? Knowing that the penalties are so high in Thailand (and just about all Asian countries). Need money? Debts? Misjudging the risks?
Yes, I wonder that too. Every time I arrive at Suvarnabhumi I see at customs that the Thai (male or female) is always asked to have his/her suitcase checked.
Well, it is considered so normal here in the Netherlands that when you go out you also take a pill, you can even have them tested at festivals to see if they are 'good', I think that's too ridiculous for words, just confiscate and a hefty fine if you have them with you.
I know you don't get the big boys with that yet, but now demand makes supply because many find it very normal.
Dear Rob. What nonsense. It is good that you can have it tested in NLD, so many wrong (bad) pills have already become known and have been removed from the market. That's good, because otherwise there will be casualties. If you are going to take them away or hand out punishments, no one will have them tested (and there will be deaths).
Have you never smoked a joint in your distant youth? Today's pills are the same for young people as our joints (not to mention alcohol consumption...)
How leaky is the check on drugs in the Netherlands at Schiphol! Even with drug dogs!
Consciously let through because Thailand knows what to do with that and set an example
other Thai people with the same plan!
While it has been scientifically proven a thousand times that XTC being MDMA is less harmful, dangerous and addictive than Alcohol.
But nothing as hypocritical as drug policy. So let's continue to drink whole bottles of Whiskey .... those dealers can still advertise their hard drugs.
XTC is in 12th place and Alcohol in 4th place in the ranking on the harmfulness of drugs.
https://www.jellinek.nl/vraag-antwoord/welke-drug-is-de-gevaarlijkste/
One of the biggest causes are the absurd prices, but that is with everything that is not or partially allowed by law. The actual cost prices are only a fraction of the asking price. Conclusion and also solution :: Make it legal and just put it in the shelves at the shops between the other products. It prevents a lot of crime and nuisance by the dealers.
They can't have a nice party nowadays without pills. Or am I old-fashioned. It seems that a lot of drugs are smuggled to the Netherlands and Madrid from Colombia. A few years ago we had a man sitting in front of us on the plane. He got angry when another passenger wanted to place his hand luggage. He hadn't eaten anything drunk the whole way. Not even a toilet visit. I thought it was quite strange and wondered if he was also transporting something. But maybe I was completely wrong.
The war on drugs is pretty pointless. We saw that with the biggest drug war: the alcohol prohibition in America. Ecstasy is less harmful or dangerous than a beer. I would legalize the less dangerous drugs like cannabis and XTC myself. Especially as long as the more dangerous / worse drug, the hard drug alcohol is legal. But that drug is socially accepted…
As for the lady: kinda stupid. Death penalty or life imprisonment? For many serious crimes you will be out again within 10-20 years. Or did I miss something and does Thailand lock up drunk drivers (with or without victims) for life?
But we also see that strict punishment does not really help. Gamble: increasing the chance of getting caught helps more. And if relatively makes less harmful drugs legal (cheaper, safer) there is little reason to deal expensive drugs in alleys.
https://eenvandaag.avrotros.nl/item/gebruik-van-xtc-is-gezonder-dan-een-biertje/