BEHIND white sand beaches on a paradise island, tourists unwittingly rub shoulders with brutal drug gangs and on-the-run fugitives.
The stunning destination has proven the perfect smokescreen for international criminals to hide in plain sight – and narc kingpins to “prey” on unsuspecting holidaymakers.
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With fugitives merrily running businesses, a booming international drugs trade and a seedy late-night industry, Thailand’s Koh Samui harbours dark secrets.
After repeated crackdowns, police have recently made a string of high-profile arrests – but the island, where the third season of the White Lotus was filmed, keeps attracting shady characters.
In May this year, wanted Brits Ashton Saunders and Kieren Thornton were nabbed on the island after more than a decade on the run.
Saunders, 37, was convicted in 2015 of swindling vulnerable British businesses by tricking them into paying for services that didn’t exist.
But before being sentenced, he fled to Thailand under a false name – Ben Ashton – and enjoyed a life of luxury among crowds of tourists on Koh Samui.
He posed as a hospitality tycoon and brazenly operated at least seven businesses in the popular Chaweng Beach area – raking in profits rather than serving time.
It’s alleged that Saunders illegally used Thai nominees to front his businesses and conceal the fact that he was running them himself, and the investigation into his trading continues.
Thornton, meanwhile, was wanted for an armed robbery in the UK but fled ahead of a warrant for his arrest.
He lived a comfortable life in a rented house with his Ukrainian girlfriend – soaking up the rays on the other side of the world while victims were left waiting for justice.
As cops moved in, the couple fled on a motorbike – but were caught at a local pier in the Bo Phut area on the north-east of the island.
All seven of Saunders’ businesses – six bars and one hotel – in the busy Chaweng Beach area were raided, and all involved may face prosecution if the set-up is found to have been illegal.
One was Sin by Night club – a strip club offering punters racy dances with scantily clad Thai girls and promising “an evening of pure delight”.
Police Lieutenant Colonel Arun Musikim, Chief Inspector of the Surat Thani Provincial Police, responsible for Koh Samui, told The Sun there has “been a very big increase in foreign fugitives coming to hide” on the island.
He added: “It is a tropical island, it is comfortable and there is luxury, but it is still not developed.
“Fugitives might think they can stay here without being detected. These criminals are wanted for a range of crimes.
“In their countries, the laws might be different — they may be allowed to leave the country even when suspected of wrongdoing.
“So once they realise they’re in trouble, they flee. Our cooperation is to prevent these foreigners from fleeing to other countries.”
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Tourists ‘prey’ for drugs gangs
Meanwhile, Thai cops arrested a British man in April suspected of masterminding a major cannabis smuggling operation between Koh Samui and London.
And in recent weeks, police believe they have uncovered an international cocaine smuggling cartel which uses the island as its HQ.
Police said most of the smuggling operations from the island used tourists recruited with free holidays and cash.
Adel Mohammed allegedly pulled the strings behind a network of Brits collecting weed from huge farms in Koh Samui and delivering their stash back to the UK.
He was arrested in Bangkok in April after 13 of his alleged footsoldiers were caught – 11 of whom were Brits.
It is a tropical island, it is comfortable and there is luxury, but it is still not developed. Fugitives might think they can stay here without being detected
Arun Musikim
This was just weeks before Bella Culley, 19, was arrested in Georgia after allegedly bundling a large cannabis stash out of the Kingdom – and the drugs flow hit the headlines.
The teen claimed she had been “forced under torture” by a Brit drug gang in Thailand to carry the haul through the airport, heading for Tbilisi.
A crime source told The Sun: “Evidence has already emerged that a major mule recruitment drive is underway.
“Young people from the UK are being targeted with the aim of reaching the UK after stopping off at European destinations en route to cover their tracks.”
This has led to fears that other young British tourists could be drawn in by drug gangs and duped into becoming mules.
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But the spring arrests did not mark the end of trouble on the island – where foreign fugitives and gangs have run rampant for years.
On July 19, customs officers at Samui International Airport intercepted two Brazilians – allegedly with almost 7 kilograms of cocaine hidden inside suitcases.
The two men, Diego dos Santos Silva, 35, and Fernanda Gabriele Lorenco de Andrade, 25, reportedly confessed they had been recruited with the promise of an all-expenses paid trip to Thailand, plus thousands in cash.
Two weeks later, on August 1, a Nigerian man was arrested after a dramatic high-speed chase, allegedly in possession of cocaine, and police suspect a link with the Brazilians’ cases.
Cops believe Koh Samui could be the hub of an international drug smuggling cartel, according to local media.
Regional police chief Pol Lt Gen Surapol Thanomjit urged tourists against being lured in by tempting promises from smuggling gangs.
He said: “Don’t carry anything for anyone, no matter how friendly they seem.
“Smugglers prey on tourists. But our officers are trained and alert.
“You will be caught.”
‘Mr Big’ and other fugitives snared
Before Saunders and Thornton were arrested, other high-profile international fugitives have been snared on Koh Samui.
In 2017, a notorious convicted British drug kingpin called Jonathan Moorby, dubbed “Mr Big”, was arrested while staying on the island.
He had been sentenced to 20 years in prison after being found guilty of conspiracy to supply more than £1million of cocaine and amphetamines.
Moorby is now seeing out a 29-year prison sentence in HMP Frankland in County Durham, nicknamed Monster Mansion.
A 60-year-old Swedish suspected drug pusher, Reino Pentti Olavi Martin, was also arrested in 2023.
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And the founder of fraudulent cryptocurrency OneCoin, Sebastian Greenwood, was found on the island in 2018.
An immigration officer said: “This isn’t just a visa issue. It’s a full-scale criminal investigation involving business law and immigration fraud.”
A Thai police source told the Thai Examiner at the time: “Tourist zones like Chaweng are attractive for people trying to disappear.
“But eventually, the law catches up.”
Thai police describe these fugitives as “stealth” foreigners – people who live under the radar and exploit loopholes to run businesses.
A nationwide crackdown on these shady characters began in the cities of Pattaya and Phuket, and has now been extended to Samui.
Launched in October 2023, more than 600 arrests had been made across the country within six months.
A senior immigration official said: “Thailand welcomes lawful foreign investment and tourism, but those who come here to hide, commit fraud, or exploit the system will be found and removed.”
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In 2017, police received a complaint about an Israeli gang running riot on the island, extorting money from foreign business owners with guns and demanding protection fees.
The same year, the police and army launched a crackdown against foreign gangs – and found that one network was using an illegal medical clinic as its secret HQ.
The next year, two Israeli men rammed their car into a motorcycle ridden by their rival and stabbed him to death, after a chance encounter during his holiday to the island.
Huge cannabis farms
Since cannabis was decriminalised in Thailand in 2022, there has been an explosion in the quantities smuggled out of the country by post and drug mules.
Koh Samui became a key producer, with industrial-scale cannabis farms springing up, and vast amounts passing through the island’s airport.
Supplying the trade are numerous dense cannabis farms that have sprung up on Koh Samui – crammed with high-grade plants – some of which lie just minutes’ walk from the White Lotus’ Four Seasons Resort.
The product is transported to countries around the world, but London is one of the main destinations, usually via Singapore.
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The masterminds can reportedly enjoy profits of up to 3,000 per cent.
One sting at Koh Samui Airport found a group attempting to smuggle more than 600kg of marijuana packed into suitcases, according to Thai authorities.
The mules were reportedly promised a free holiday and a £2,000 bonus if they successfully smuggled their stash.
UK and Thai authorities collaborated to launch Operation Chaophraya, and National Crime Agency detectives and Home Office officials were dispatched over there.
Around 50 Brits were arrested and charged across the operation, with a dozen of them linked to Koh Samui.
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Police Lieutenant Colonel Arun Musikim said: “Initially most incidents happened at Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok.
“But as arrests increased, the security tightened inspections, making it harder for smugglers to operate.
“So they began looking for smaller airports with international flights, which is why they started using Koh Samui, as it operates international flights while still being a very small airport.”
Cannabis is no longer illegal in Thailand, but it is a crime to smuggle the drug in or out of the country.
‘Strict and uncompromising’
The provincial police Chief Inspector vowed that his officers are cracking down on crime perpetrated by foreigners.
He said: “Across Koh Samui, police are strict and expand investigations whenever foreign wrongdoing is discovered.
“We investigate everything and exchange information among agencies. We’re doing everything we can to close off every possible path for wrongdoers.
“Our approach is strict and uncompromising, so that foreign nationals who break the law will be stopped through every possible legal means.
“We won’t let them get away.”
Inside the dark world of Brit ‘drug mules’
A SLEW of drug mule arrests involving Brits have emerged in the last few months.
In April and May, two Brit women were arrested abroad for alleged drug smuggling.
Bella Culley was the first after she allegedly tried to smuggle a suitcase of weed into Georgia.
Meanwhile, former air stewardess Charlotte May Lee was also caught allegedly trying to smuggle drugs worth £1.2million into Sri Lanka.
Her two suitcases were said to have been stuffed with 46kg of a synthetic cannabis strain known as kush — which is 25 times more potent than opioid fentanyl.
If found guilty, South Londoner Charlotte could face a 25-year sentence.
As a young mum was detained in Germany for allegedly smuggling cannabis in her bags on a flight from Thailand – in yet another shocking case.
Glamorous Cameron Bradford, 21, from Knebworth, Herts, was detained at Munich Airport on April 21 as she tried to collect her luggage.
It comes as a Brit couple claiming to be tourists from Thailand have been busted with more than 33kg of cannabis in their suitcases at a Spanish airport.
The pair were picked out by suspicious cops at Valencia Airport after displaying a “nervous and evasive attitude” and are now behind bars on drug trafficking charges.
Experts told The Sun how wannabe Brit Insta stars are being lured by cruel gangs into carting drugs across the world.
Then last month, a six-year-old British boy was arrested in Mauritius suspected of smuggling part of a £1.6million dope haul stuffed inside his wheelie case.
The lad was picked up by customs officials along with his mum and five other Brits as they arrived on the tropical island.
Authorities branded the use of a child in the audacious drug smuggling plot as “inhumane”.
