I never thought there would be a connection between my two hometowns: Crown Point, Indiana and Bangkok Thailand ============================================================================ Prison drug dealers jailed in US
(BangkokPost.com from reports – Nov. 4, 2007)
Chicago - A Thai couple who admitted they ran an international heroin trafficking operation from Bang Kwang Central Prison have pleaded guilty in a US court. Reports said that Suwannee Spriprasarn and Pasit Bencharit, who were extradited to the United States earlier this year, pleaded guilty in front of Chief Judge Robert Miller Jr accepted the guilty pleas in South Bend federal court in the state of Indiana. Pasit, who was in jail at the time of the heroin smuggling, and his accomplice Ms Suwannee said they were working with an Australian man who was also serving a sentence in the prison to ship large packages of heroin to the United States. "We live in a global society," Assistant US Attorney Diane Berkowitz said. "This is coming from Thailand to the Northern District of Indiana." Suwannee faces up to 20 years in a US federal prison, and is to be sentenced on Friday on one count of conspiring to distribute heroin. Sentencing for Pasit might be postponed, according to a report in The Northwest Indiana and Illinois Times. According to the newspaper, Pasit's attorney Philip Skodinski said Pasit intends to try to withdraw the guilty plea he entered through a Thai interpreter. He no longer feels he was guilty of aiding and abetting heroin possession with the intention to distribute, the attorney said. Prosecutors allege Pasit was in prison working with an Australian, Mitchell Blake, who was already serving a lengthy sentence in Bang Kwang. The Thai government has refused to extradite Blake. Pasit and Blake communicated with the outside world using cellular phones, for which they had to bribe their guards $450 a month, according to the US indictment in the case. Suwannee worked outside the prison coordinating payments and shipments through international mail. According to the newspaper, the case began in 2000 when authorities picked up an East Chicago dealer named Jason Burke, who eventually told authorities how he ordered heroin through the mail, court records state. Authorities tested the story by having a small shipment mailed to Crown Point and then sent an undercover agent to the Thai prison to meet Pasit and Blake, who assured the agent that being in prison did not hinder their ability to deliver the drugs, court records state. A total of 1.25 kilogrammes of heroin was seized as a result of the operation. | 
