Across Asia: Thailand

Heroin not safe in condoms

Thai customs officials said yesterday they had arrested a Pakistani man at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi International Airport with 54 condoms in his stomach containing half a kilo of heroin.

Kamran Pervaiz Butt, 24, was arrested Tuesday on a Thai Airways flight from Islamabad, customs authorities said in a statement. Thai authorities received a tip-off that there would be a drug smuggler on the flight and stopped Butt because of his suspicious manner as he came through the nothing-to-declare channel at customs, they said. Butt was charged with possession and trafficking of class A drugs, which carries a possible death sentence in Thailand.