Thai workers are smuggling methamphetamine pills, or "ya ba", and crystal methamphetamine, aka "ya ice", into Israel when they go there to work, the deputy secretary-general of the Office of the Narcotic Control Board has said.
Witthawan Sunthornkhajit said Israeli officials told him that Thai workers smuggled the drugs in when they flew to Israel, and took the drugs specifically to the country's South, though more recently, airmail has become the preferred trafficking method.
Most of the Thai workers in Israel work in the agricultural sector, he said.
Mr Witthawan said the drugs smuggled into Israel were hidden inside packages of consumer goods placed in workers' suitcases.
He did not know how many Thai workers have been arrested in Israel for smuggling the drugs and selling them to their colleagues and Israelis over the past few years.
Mr Witthawan, Mr Thongchai Chasawath, director-general of the Department of Consular Affairs, representatives from the Labour Ministry, the Narcotics Suppression Bureau and the Customs Department are now in Israel to meet Thai workers and their employers.
They left Thailand for Israel last Friday to gather first-hand information on the drugs situation.
According to information provided by Israeli officials, Mr Witthawan said the Thai workers have been bringing the drugs into the country since 2012.
He said they were hired by their Thai colleagues — who supplement their living selling the drugs in Israel — to buy methamphetamines in Thailand when they came home on holidays. They took them back when they returned to resume work.
Mr Witthawan said one person would smuggle 100-2,000 pills at a time and would put them into soap boxes, shampoo bottles, coffee bags and cigarette packs.
They allegedly bought the drugs from dealers in the Northeast and smuggled them to Israel.
Mr Witthawan warned Thai workers who will travel to work in Israel and those who are already there not to get involved with drugs because the penalties are severe.
Those found to have possessed or taken narcotics can be imprisoned for up to 20 years or fined up to 25 times the general penalty defined in Israeli criminal law, according to a Thai Labour Ministry announcement.
Meth and "ice" drugs are popular among Thai workers in Israel and also gaining popularity among Israelis at night clubs and entertainment places there.