Australian tourist who was rushed to hospital with acute stomach ache was arrested after a doctor found 65 packages containing drugs worth more than one million baht in his stomach. The provincial hospital alerted police late on Friday night when an X-ray of John Paul Jones, 51, revealed suspicious objects, shaped like a string of sausages, in his intestine. The objects were later extracted and identified as 800 grammes of hashish. Worapob Sutiwatanaruput, the doctor supervising the case, said Mr Jones experienced severe stomach pain after staying on the tourist island of Samui for five days and was taken to hospital. ''Before the operation, Mr Jones looked nervous and asked whether police would be notified. We found 62 black objects obstructing his small intestine. Three packs had burst,'' Dr Worapob said. The hash was wrapped in condoms and each pack was about two inches long. The operation to extract the packages took two hours and Mr Jones remained in critical condition yesterday, the doctor said. Police said the hash, regarded as a category 5 drug, was not produced in Thailand. The drug was likely to have been made in India or Pakistan and is popular among tourists who take part in the full moon parties on Koh Phangan, an island close to Samui. It is sold at 1,500-2,000 baht a gramme. Police said Mr Jones would be charged and detained for interrogation. Provincial governor Vinai Buapradit suspected Mr Jones swallowed the drugs when he was overseas so he could pass through drug detectors and sniffer dogs at airports and at the pier on Samui where boats leave for Koh Phangan. Pinyo Thongchai, the deputy chief of the Department of Special Investigation, said trans-national criminal groups were rampant on Koh Samui. As well as the Bandidos motorcycle gang, which recently faced a crackdown by authorities, there were also international mafia gangs doing illegal businesses in drugs, land and property deals and extorting money from foreign businessmen. In June last year police on Koh Samui arrested Frenchman Pittet Pasca Maorica, 53, who was also admitted to Samui International Hospital after suffering from stomach pain. Doctors found one kilogramme of heroin in his stomach.
