‘Death Island’ back in the news

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From The Thaiger

An unnamed Thai police officer revealed that his superiors attempted to suppress a story about the arrest of a British backpacker for selling Category 1 drugs on a notorious island in Thailand.

Andrew Brett was arrested on Thursday, February 29, for allegedly selling ecstasy and LSD to other foreign tourists at the Ecco Bar on Koh Tao island in the southern province of Surat Thani. The Thai officer, who wished to remain anonymous, informed a reporter that the police had been monitoring the drug dealer for several months before they swooped to nab him.

The Thai cop made known they wanted to conceal the crime because the drug dealing took place on the notorious Koh Tao island, widely known as Death Island.

Following a tip-off from a concerned patron, police initiated an investigation into allegations that the British man was distributing drugs at the bar. After monitoring his activities for five months, officers finally apprehended him on his way to the establishment on February 29. Among his belongings, officers allegedly discovered 0.54 grammes of ecstasy in a plastic bag, along with 25 ecstasy pills and 75 LSD sheets, locally known as magic paper.

According to police reports, Brett would leave his apartment daily at 8pm to sell drugs to customers at the Ecco Bar, a short distance from Sairee Beach where British backpackers Hannah Witheridge and David Miller were tragically killed in 2014.

The police officer revealed that the case had been kept confidential for several months. Subsequently, they stated that orders had been given to “suppress the case”’to safeguard the island’s notorious mafia-like reputation.

“The suspect admitted that all the narcotics found belonged to him. He said he sold ecstasy pills to tourists for 1,000 baht each, while the LSD paper was sold at 100 baht each.”

Brett has been charged with possession of Category I narcotics for distribution and now faces a potential punishment of up to life imprisonment or even the death penalty, depending on the severity of the case.

Koh Tao earned the nickname Death Island following the tragic murders of British backpackers Witheridge and Miller in 2014. Subsequent incidents of tourist deaths have raised concerns, with several cases remaining unexplained.

Authors, documentary makers, and researchers have attributed these incidents to corrupt Thai police and a powerful group of local families controlling the island, accused of covering up the murders, reported The Daily Mail.