Brutal reality of how Thai drug gangs convince Brits to smuggle weed into the UK

A recent documentary has unveiled the dark secrets behind how more and more young British people are being convinced to risk spending years in prison for smuggling drugs into the UK from Thailand.

Channel 4’s Untold: Inside Thailand's British Drug Mule Gangs looks into the growing trend, with cases such as Bella Culley bringing extra attention to the trend.

The Channel 4 documentary interviews a British drug mule ‘Lucy’ who reveals that she agreed to smuggle a suitcase full of weed into the UK because of the money that was offered.

The journalist behind the documentary Tir Dhondy revealed that they are paid five grand per flight, with Brits having flights paid for to come out to Thailand, spend a couple of weeks on holiday, and then heading back with a suitcase of weed.

Tir also meets some of the terrifying criminals who pressure young Brits into making the trips, including threatening those who consider backing out.

The Channel 4 doc sees Tir interview both drug smugglers and their mules (Channel 4)

Marijuana is legal for purchase in Thailand, but smuggling it into the UK can lead to years in prison.

Speaking exclusively to LADbible, Tir spoke about the trend of who is picked, and how they are convinced to smuggle the drugs.

She said: “I've learned from the gangs that they seem to prey on vulnerable people or people that don't have a lot of money and need to make the money.

“I think maybe originally the people that get caught, it's random checks that get done at the end of airports once they arrive in the UK.

“So perhaps. men would have been the target you know for the border force to search them more than women.

“A lot of what I found as well was that it's word of mouth when the gangs recruit the mules a lot of the time it's like friends of friends or people that they know and maybe you know a few women have done it and they're kind of passing it on to their friends.

“The incentive is the £5k to fly over the suitcase and around £2k spending money on holiday, free flights, that sort of thing that entices a lot of people.”

She noted that, whilst the news reports around the topic focus particularly on the young women who are being hired for the job – the statistics show it’s relatively even across genders.

Tir added: “I mean the profiles that the news report on is these really glamorous young women, which is why I think the story was sticking because it was very unexpected.

During filming they happen to come across a woman who is found with £500k worth of weed in her suitcase (Channel 4)

“People didn't expect these kind of young women to be doing something like that”

In the documentary Tir found out that, whilst the gangsters will be charming to convince someone to agree, they will be far more forceful if they get wind that someone is considering pulling out.

One anonymous gangster speaking in the doc reveals that if someone threatens to pull out she will tell them: “If you think you’re backing out now I will f*cking kill you here in f*cking Thailand, I’ll chop… you’re going home in that suitcase, I don’t give a f*ck if you get through.”

UNTOLD: Inside Thailand's British Drug Mule Gangs airs on Channel 4 tonight, 11.05pm. It can also be streamed on YouTube here.