THE number of women being used as drug mules has gone up in the last 10 years, said Dr Thomas Pietschmann, aresearcher with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

'It's not a major trend but the reasons are quite obvious. People think women are usually not considered high risks for trafficking, so they are less likely to get checked at airport customs than males,' he told The New Paper.

'There are also fewer female custom officers to check these women. The drug traffickers know this, and they exploit it because the success rate is higher if they get women to courier the drugs.'

In the early 1990s Kazakhstan women began carrying heroin into Russia on trains, said Dr Pietschmann.

The West Africans, particularly Nigerians, started using women drug mules in 2000 when West Africa became a hub for cocaine and heroin trafficking.

Still more men

But Dr Pietschmann said that globally male traffickers still outnumber women.

And the number of women drug mules in Asia is small, compared with Africa and Europe.

In 2007, 5,600 female drug traffickers were arrested in Germany, compared with about 200 in Malaysia and four in Singapore.

He said Singaporean women may be targeted as drug mules because, with our tough drug laws, they are seen as having a better chance of slipping under the radar in other countries.

He added: 'Singapore doesn't play a significant role in global drug trafficking.

'But Singapore has a good air-transport network, and that may be misused by some drug syndicates.'

Task force

But using women as drug mules hasbecome such a concern that the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) has called for an international task group to be set up.

PDEA chief Dionisio Santiago said the task group would be based in Thailand and help in information exchange and intelligence sharing for 'effective and efficient counter-measures' against illegal drug couriers, news network Inquirer.net reported.

He cited a Department of Foreign Affairs report saying at least 240Filipinos, mostly women, have been arrested in different countries for drug-related offences.

Some have died in accidents involving drugs they swallowed for transporting.

In 2007, the Thai government said West Africans were responsible for air couriering heroin via India to China, using female Nigerian, Congolese, Ghanaian, Filipino, Pakistani and Thai couriers.

A UNODC report in 2008 said the relationship between the 'mule' and the owner of the drugs is exploitative.

The two are frequently from different national groups, and usually where the courier holds a passport that is less likely to attract attention.

• The CNB has asked those who are unsure if they are being made use of to contact the bureau at 1800-3256666.

Syndicates prowl social networking site for victims

THIS year alone, 13 Singaporean women drug mules have been caught, compared with only eight between 2003 and 2007.

CNB said that the arrested women - 10Malays, two Chinese and one Indian - wereaged between 19 and 48.

Other countries are facing the same problem.

Superintendent Alan said most of these women met their recruiters on social networking sites or at nightspots at Clarke Quay.

He said the syndicates monitored an Internet site popular in Southeast Asia for vulnerable women to seduce.

The women openly posted their personal details and photographs and often listed their female friends, making them vulnerable to attack too.

Some were divorcees or separated and openly said they were looking for a relationship.

He said: 'It's like leaving the door half-open to anyone who wants to exploit them.'

The syndicate members would decide among themselves which woman to seduce and lure to neighbouring countries to become drug mules, Supt Alan said.

He said he found photographs of syndicate members in some of the women's pages on social networking sites.

The men were dressed smartly in suits and portrayed themselves as successful businessmen.

One stood with a book in front of a bookshelf to give the impression he was the academic sort, others wore branded sports gear to look like the rich and athletic type, and some stood in front of posh hotels implying they were widely travelled.

Supt Alan is especially concerned as he hasan 18-year-old daughter and a 14-year-old son. He said: 'My daughter is always on the Internet, so I am concerned about who she meets online.'

This article was first published in The New Paper.