BANGKOK, July 3 — Early in the morning on June 18, a message from an unknown account slipped into the TikTok inbox of a flight attendant in Bangkok with a series of questions: "Are you flying to Australia? Do you do carry-for-hire? What is your rate?"
The 30-year-old, who flies for a regional budget carrier, ignored the message and forgot about it — until Tuesday, when a Thai Airways flight attendant was charged with importing more than 1kg of heroin into Australia hidden in several tote bags.
"I do not reply to strangers like this. We have been constantly warned about this; no carry-for-hire. It is a well-known rule," the Bangkok flight attendant told Reuters, referring to the account that messaged her.
She asked not to be named due to the sensitivity of the issue.
Thailand's Office of the Narcotics Control Board (ONCB) spokesman Areepak Ngernbamroong said the unknown account — named "Powder is Powder" in Thai — was linked to drug trafficking networks that create fake social media accounts to find people to move illicit substances across borders.
"The account has now been shut down. The ONCB is investigating, and preliminary findings indicate that the account used many different names," he said.
In a statement following the detention, Thai Airways said it had strict rules governing the conduct of all employees and would cooperate with the relevant authorities.
Cross-border movement
The Thai authorities have noted that after procuring drugs from neighbouring countries with large production facilities, trafficking networks move the substances through Thailand concealed in items such as clothing, coffee packets, and vases.
In December last year, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime reported that the cultivation of opium poppies for the production of heroin in neighbouring Myanmar surged to its highest level in a decade in 2025.
War-torn Myanmar is the world's main known source of illicit opium, amid declining production in Afghanistan, as conflict and economic hardship push more farmers into the illicit trade.
ONCB secretary-general Pol Maj Suriya Singhakamol said that in Thailand, trafficking networks target specific groups of travellers, including flight attendants, to help transport the drugs overseas.
The Thai Airways flight attendant arrested in Australia had initially posted in a social media group where people offer to carry items overseas for a fee.
He said that she then began communicating with a Facebook user named "Rose Rose".
"They later agreed on a fee of ฿8,800 (RM1,080.42)," Suriya told the media.
The Australian Federal Police stated that the heroin concealed within the lining of the bags carried by the attendant had an estimated street value of AU$500,000 (RM1.41 million).
Suriya observed that using similar methods, drug smuggling networks had prepared to send five more packages from Bangkok to Australia and Taiwan between June 30 and July 1.
"But authorities seized 24.38kg of heroin, concealed in traditional goods, silk clothing, coffee sachets, and winter jackets," he said, adding that Thai agencies were coordinating with Australian and Taiwanese authorities.
So far, Thai authorities have taken into custody two people, a Thai man and his Laotian wife, suspected of sending drug parcels from a border province to Bangkok.
