2007

Michael Clarke The Thai capital of Bangkok has attractions for not only honest foreign businessmen but a wide range of scammers. The scams have continued over the years. Only the bait changes. One on end of the scale was the ‘film company executive’ who set up a company to make a ‘Hollywood block-buster’ and who […]

Together with Sudarat Sereewat, the General Secretary of Thailand’s ‘Fight Against Child Exploitation Foundation’ Andrew Drummond investigated the plight of a group of Padaung, the long necked Burmese, part of the Karenni minority, who were tricked by Thai businessmen and made to perform in a ‘human zoo’ in Thaton, North Thailand. The Padaung had smuggled […]

In September 2004 a Thai policeman Sergeant Somchai Wisetsingh gunned down and murdered Briton Adam Lloyd, 24, and then driving a Volvo chased and ran over his girlfriend Vanessa Arscott, 23, on a road running alongside the River Kwai in Kanchanaburi, Western Thailand.As she clung onto an electric pylon Sergeant Wisetsingh killed her execution-style with […]

In February 2003 posing as a teacher Andrew Drummond entered Ashgabad the capital of Turkmenistan, a country out of bounds to journalists, and seldom visited by tourists. Within days he was up on the podium with Niyazoz ‘The Great Turkmenbashi’ as the ruthless dictator took his birthday salute.His report for ‘The Times’ highlighted the widespread […]

British traffic cop turns to ‘sex trafficker’  Picture left APFrom Andrew Drummond, Bangkok May 21 2008A former Liverpool traffic policeman was arrested in Thailand yesterday for trafficking in women to the sex slave trade in Britain.Ian Shuttleworth, aged 42, was arrested at his Bangkok apartment after a tip of to Thai police.He is alleged to […]

Scotsman Friday April 13 2007 Our man in Bangkok upsets Thais and expats in ‘patronising’ weblog ANDREW DRUMMOND IN BANGKOK THE Scottish deputy head of Britain’s mission in Bangkok has given up his internet blog after three days of insults on the internet, mainly  from angry Britons in Thailand. Ian Proud, also the head of the […]

From Andrew Drummond,Sihanoukville, CambodiaHe ran with the notorious Glasgow gang ‘The Tongs’, notorious for their razor slashings in the city’s old tenements.As a kid he was in and out of approved school borstal and Barlinnie Prison, Glasgow, the infamous ‘Bar L’.His father was a convicted armed robber and lorry hijacker. His brother TC Campbell has […]

From The TimesFebruary 7, 2007Sorry I’m 25 years late – I got on the wrong bus to go shoppingAndrew Drummond in Bangkok It was just a normal shopping trip when Jaeyana Beuraheng bade farewell to her eight children as she left to cross the border into Malaysia. But it would be 25 years before she would […]

From The TimesJanuary 30, 2007Cobra Swamp is reclaiming Bangkok’s showpiece airport                     Andrew Drummond in Bangkok Bangkok’s showpiece international airport, opened last year, appears to be sinking into the swamp on which it was built. The city’s old airport will have to be reopened and some flights diverted there.The $4 billion (£205 million) Suvarnabhumi airport was opened […]

From The TimesJanuary 1, 2007Two die as bomb blasts hit new year celebrations in Bangkok•  British tourists among the injured•  Nine explosions across the Thai capitalAndrew Drummond in BangkokTerrorists brought carnage to Bangkok’s new year celebrations last night with a series of bombings that started early in the evening and ended at the stroke of […]