British drug rings invade TV's White Lotus island

51 cannabis smugglers caught in one month

- DAN WARBURTON

BRITS are running cannabis empires on the paradise island featured in TV's The White Lotus.

The dark comedy about rich people behaving badly at a luxury resort is filmed on Koh Samui.

But the Thai isle has also become a magnet for drug-dealing lowlifes after Thailand relaxed its drug laws.

Twelve Brits were caught at the local airport in just five days last month.

They were trying to smuggle 400kg of cannabis to the UK, Germany, Singapore and Hong Kong.

Across Thailand, the situation is so bad that British and Thai officers have joined forces to tackle it.

During a month-long crackdown, they seized two tons of cannabis worth over £6million at Thai airports.

More than 50 Brits were arrested and charged before being held in hell-hole prisons for trying to bring cannabis into the UK.

Thailand legalised the drug in 2022 but smuggling it is still punishable by 10 years' jail.

It is the first country to decriminalise dope in South East Asia, where narcotics laws are historically the toughest in the world. The decision has pleased cash-strapped farmers but made the country a magnet for international drug tourists and smugglers. Thousands of marijuana shops and farms have sprung up, including in Koh Samui, an hour's flight from Bangkok.

We visited one where an elderly worker was tending rows of flowering plants growing metres from a busy road.

Nearby, an industrial hash factory with a paramilitary checkpoint was protected by razor wire and signs warning that trespassers would be shot.