A street-level drug bust in East Chicago led to guilty pleas from a Thai couple who admitted to operating an international heroin smuggling ring out of a maximum-security prison in Bangkok.
Chief Judge Robert Miller Jr. accepted the guilty pleas in South Bend federal court Wednesday of Suwannee Spriprasarn and Pasit Bencharit, who claimed they were working with an Australian man -- also in the Thai prison -- to ship large packages of heroin to the United States.
"We live in a global society," Assistant U.S. Attorney Diane Berkowitz said. "This is coming from Thailand to the Northern District of Indiana."
Spriprasarn is scheduled to be sentenced Nov. 9 for pleading guilty to one count of conspiring to distribute heroin. She faces up to 20 years in a U.S. prison.
But Bencharit's sentencing might be postponed. His attorney, Philip Skodinski, said Thursday his client intends to try to withdraw the guilty plea he entered in August through a Thai interpreter because Bencharit no longer feels he was guilty of aiding and abetting heroin possession with the intention to distribute.
Prosecutors allege Bencharit was in prison working with an Australian, Mitchell Blake, who was already serving a lengthy sentence in the Bang Kwang Central Prison. The Thai government has refused to extradite Blake.
Bencharit and Blake communicated with the outside world using cellular phones, for which they had to bribe their guards $450 a month, the indictment states. Spriprasarn worked on the outside the prison coordinating payments and shipments through international mail carriers.
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 the men, who assured the agent that their being in prison would not hinder their ability to deliver the drugs, court records state.
A total of 1.25 kilograms, or nearly 3 pounds, of heroin was seized as a result of the operation.
