06 March 2024 , 13:15
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A Brit backpacker potentially facing the death penalty after he was arrested for allegedly selling drugs in Thailand had got married days before police arrived.
Andrew John Brett, 36, had allegedly been peddling ecstasy and LSD to other tourists at the Ecco Bar on Koh Tao island in the southern province of Surat Thani. launched an investigation following a tip-off from a concerned customer at the bar suggesting he was distributing drugs.
After a five month investigation police arrested him and allegedly found 0.54 grams of ecstasy in a plastic bag, 25 ecstasy pills, and 75 LSD sheets, known locally as 'magic paper', among his belongings. Police have accused Brett of leaving his apartment every day at 8pm to sell drugs at the bar. Thailand has strict laws surrounding drugs and a life sentence or death penalty my be enforced for those "commanding a drug network".
Brett could be facing life in a Thai jail (ViralPress)His dad Andrew told MailOnline he had only just arrived back in Britain after his son’s wedding - days before his arrest. The 82-year-old retired electrician said: “This has come as a great shock - we haven't been told anything.
“We've just come back from Thailand. We went for the wedding. Everything seemed perfect. It was a beautiful ceremony, we had such a wonderful time. He has a lovely wife and their son is not yet four months old. Now to think this has happened. It just doesn't make sense.”
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A police spokesman said that the case had been kept confidential for several months. They added they had been ordered to “suppress the case” in order to protect the notoriously mafia-like island. The police officer, who was too afraid to be named, said: "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 was charged with possession of Category I narcotics for distribution. He now faces a punishment of up to life imprisonment or the death penalty if found guilty.
Koh Tao was dubbed Death Island following the murders of British backpackers Hannah Witheridge and David Miller who were bludgeoned to death on the island in 2014. It was believed at the time there were killed by the son of a prominent local family on the idyllic island before corrupt Thai police framed two innocent Burmese workers Zaw Lin and Wai Phyo.
Dozens more unexplained deaths of tourists on the island later emerged, causing it to be given the chilling moniker Death Island. However, local police have since made efforts to censor any negative cases emerging from the idyllic island, with a handful of local families that have lived there for decades benefiting financially from its attractiveness to backpackers and scuba divers from around the world.