Thai Airways flight attendant arrested for heroin smuggling via TikTok

A Thai Airways flight attendant based in Bangkok was arrested in Australia after being recruited through a TikTok message from an account called “Powder is Powder” to transport heroin. The attendant agreed to carry more than one kilogram of heroin hidden in tote bags for a fee of 8,800 baht, with the drugs valued at about A$500,000. Australian authorities seized the packages, and Thai police said they had intercepted a total of 24.38 kilograms of heroin destined for Australia and Taiwan, concealed in traditional goods such as silk clothing, coffee sachets and winter jackets.

Thai officials say drug gangs create fake social‑media profiles to recruit airline crew and other travelers, exploiting routes through Thailand from neighboring Myanmar, whose opium poppy cultivation reached a decade‑high in 2025. Two additional suspects, a Thai man and his Laotian wife, have been detained for sending drug parcels from a border province to Bangkok.