At the end of the movie, the two lawyers realise that Darlene and Alice were set up to be caught, to create a distraction to allow the other 6 drug mules to pass through undetected. If that's true, why would they plant THAT much heroin on them? That's a lot of money to waste for a drug dealer, surely that would cancel out a lot of the profit from the other mules?
shareI can see your point. I remember watching this and asking the same question.
It has to be one of two possibilities.
Either they had a sh*t ton of other carriers on there to the point where the profit they were going to make was really really worth losing THAT much heroin.
Then again, if they had a ton of other mules and enough drugs on that flight, they probably needed a huge amount, to make the fuss big and flashy. Make sure that the airport agents need to cause a lot of ruckus to bust Alice and Darlene. Keeps the focus on those two and lets everyone else that needs to ''get through'' simply...get through.
Unless the police planted the extra 4-5kg. It was said that the police worked on commission and that they were in on it. It was also demonstrated in court that the 8 tins they said she had brought wouldn't fit in a bag , which was the exact same make and size as the one Alice wore, except that her real bag mysteriously went missing in police hands. In the airport, they only pulled out 2 tins.
shareAFAIK, in drug-related cases, weight does matter. Someone with small amount will probably get charged with possession, the punishment for which is close to a slap on the wrist, whereas with large amount one would get charged with distribution and trafficking, which is a major felony and carries a far more severe punishment.
Yes, I do remember that they only showed 2 tins when they "busted" the girls at the airport; perhaps that was not enough to justify it as a "major bust", so the cops had to make up the 6 kilos in court. Furthermore, that's why they probably "lost" the actual backpack, it was just so much easier to get a conviction without it, especially in a corrupt justice system where people get convicted when evidence against them "disappears" during investigation.
And yes, the cops were in on it as well. Not sure how much "peon" officers knew about what was going on, but the inspector (who would later get promoted to Minister of Justice) was definitely in on it. And if the dope that was found on girls was worth a sizable chunk of cash, I'm sure it found its way back to where it came from thanks to him.
Weight matters, but purity does not.
Obviously they didn't plant raw hair-ron on the girls, prolly just 10-20% (maybe less) and the rest was a cutting agent like mannitol or quinine. Just enough evenly distributed to test positive in a chemical analysis.
Unlike coke which you can only cut so much before customers will start complaining of a weak product, hair-ron is cut many, many times after coming from the opium poppies and is still very potent.
My issue is if the Tai po-po did a reasonable background check they would immediately realize these high school girls on vacation were only mules and with their help they could catch the guy that had sex with them, who would lead to a middle man who would eventually lead to a big dealer.
Rather the were just happy to give the possibly, totally, innocent couriers 33 years without fully investigating where they got it from. With a sketch artist and MAYBE any security cameras at the airports they would eventually catch him. It just seemed to me either corruption or laziness by the Tais.
Midnight Express and Brokedown Palace should be mandatory viewing for all young unescorted US visitors to places like Turkey, the Golden Triangle countries and anywhere else that Coke and hair-ron come from. The stakes are just too damn high and many of those governments corrupt or indifferent to basic common sense and safe guards such as proof beyond a reasonable doubt.
My issue is if the Tai po-po did a reasonable background check they would immediately realize these high school girls on vacation were only mules and with their help they could catch the guy that had sex with them, who would lead to a middle man who would eventually lead to a big dealer.You obviously missed a crucial point that was made toward the end of the movie. The police had no interest in catching the guy who had sex with the girls, or anyone else above him up that food chain as they were clearly in the pocket of that drug trafficking ring. The girls, as Alice put it, were a "walking bribe" designed to make the cops look good in the eyes of Thai government and general public by demonstrating that they are doing something about drug trafficking problem (obviously, throwing anyone in prison without thorough investigation was good enough). The inspector who played "good cop" with Darlene after they got arrested was in on it too big time. Later on his "hard work and dedication" to "catching those evil drug smugglers" got him a promotion to Royal Minister of Justice. share
Rather the were just happy to give the possibly, totally, innocent couriers 33 years without fully investigating where they got it from. With a sketch artist and MAYBE any security cameras at the airports they would eventually catch him. It just seemed to me either corruption or laziness by the Tais