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Arriving in Bangkok, I decided to stay overnight to meet up with my cousin. He got off at work at midnight so I waited around at my friend’s house and had a few beers. Took a short nap and sobered up for a few hours before hopping on my bike.

My cousin had called me after midnight informing he had finished work and was at his apartment on Lad Prao road. I set off. At the Ratchada/Sutisarn intersection, I came subject to a breathalyser test, which I passed and was let on–perhaps meeting the police could be considered a foreshadowing or a warning not to get too ambitious for the evening.

On arrival at my cousins, he invited me to go to his friend’s house to have a few drinks and watch football game. My cousin asked to drive my motorbike but I refused him knowing he had no drivers license:

“There’s no cops around at this hour checking. Don’t worry.” He tried to be persuasive.

I didn’t budge. “I just got checked before coming to meet you, and besides, Bangkok is no place to take freedom for granted. Cops here aren’t as lax as you may think.” I assured him. “Maybe I’ll let you drive the way back home (if you’re not drunk).”

We arrived at his friend’s house and came to the door. I noticed a larger 40 something man standing in the back corridor.

“Is my friend Beer here?” My cousin asked the man through the screen door from the porch.

“Yea, come on in.” He turned his head to the behind the wall. “Beer, your friend is here. He’s come with a friend too.”

My cousin whispered something as we took off our shoes to enter the house–which I later realized was the word ‘police’. I followed my couzin as the reality hadn’t come over me yet–after all, we were there for the Liverpool game, and I had no idea we were walking into the middle of a drug bust!

My initial assumption was that the older men inside must of been family of my cousin’s friends, most likely his friend’s father and so on arrival I politely waied the man, the expected respectful gesture in greeting elders in Thailand. Then I noticed another older man come out of the room, whom I also waied.

Upon entering the back corridor, I saw a group of young teenagers hanging around sitting down with a few large bamboo bongs in the center, and assumed they were all just chilling out. Then I realized that the older men were the only one’s standing and looked quite serious. My eyes grew wide and the reality gradually hit me, when we were ordered to sit against the wall like the other 9 or so teenagers in the room.

We were immediately searched, though the policeman near me was quite polite and asked before searching me–in contrast, my cousin wasn’t asked first. The policeman gathered that we were cousins and I was ‘half’ Thai and he calmly interrogated us as the other larger policeman was rudely scolding the other teenagers–about 7 boys and 2 girls, all paralyzed to the wall with shock in their eyes.

Then I noticed the guns and badges and a few more plain clothes police man coming into the room from another room. It was established that a bust of up to three kilograms of marijuana had been made moments prior and according to my cousin, heroin and speed!

My first reaction was to offer my identification and show my possessions in my pocket, even before the police men asked to search me,for after all I was completely oblivious, though they didn’t seem too interested in me or my possessions. The police who questioned me was actually quite polite, while the other seemed determined in including me and my cousin in the bust–aggressively warning that everyone in the room was doomed. Luckily his partner seemed sensible and I just sit down in shock to see how it would unfold.

The meaner policeman pulled out some handcuffs, his 9 mm hanging out his side, and my heart skipped a beat. He cuffed two boys on the adjacent wall. My cousin later told me that the two had been busted with heroin and speed! As they collected my cousins belongings in a central bowl (though pretty much ignoring me with my wallet and phone still in my pockets) another policeman came in with a camera and took a few shots of the kids on the other wall. Everyone was red eyed–not sure from drugs or tears.

I thought to myself, ‘Shit, this is bad!’ for such a bust would surely make front page papers, as Thai news and media love these kind of stories-pictures to contrast with other corpses and mayhem on the front pages. I was thinking if we were going to be beaten into admission that we were buying drugs (though between the two of us, we had a grand total of about 300 baht)

The larger meaner policeman announced that everyone, particularly the ones who didn’t have any drugs in posession would likely be spending days at the city jail to undergo extensive drug testing–guilty until proven innocent. Finally, I proclaimed that ‘We are innocent! Please check our blood and/or urine now and you shall see.’

The polite policeman assured me to calm down as my cousin and I would only undergo a background check while his macho partner told me to ’shut up or be prepared to take a foot!’ I wasn’t sure what was going down.

Eventually, the kind policeman asked for our identification cards for background checks. He stated that he was also from the same province as our addresses in Lopburi. And as the lucky stars shined down, my cousin and I were released with all our possessions in tact.

While I can honestly say that I had no knowledge of any drug party, I can say that I was highly fortunate and thankful for not being set up and bunched in with the other kids whom my cousin was acquainted with. As to their fate now, it is likely that the people that most of them will either be paying hefty under the table fines, and/or serving time. Drugs are no joke in Thailand!!!

So let this be a warning to others. Even if you are innocent and oblivious as in my situation, you may not be fortunate as me. If we had been there an hour earlier before the drug bust went down, and just happened to be there in the wrong place at the wrong time, surely our proclaims to innocence and oblivion would have amounted to nothing.

Be careful who you associate with! And for those who think that they just keep their drugs out of the house and prefer to take it to the public night scene, be even more weary as Bangkok raids in entertainment districts are quite the norm.

The Siamerican Wanderer

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