Aussie with hashish in stomach dies

AN Australian who tried to smuggle 60 condoms stuffed with hashish inside his stomach has died in a Thai hospital.
John Paul Jones, 50, was rushed to hospital on April 11 in the southern Thai town of Surat Thani, with doctors finding 60 condoms stuffed with hashish in his intestine. Three of the condoms had burst. A total of 800 grams of hashish was recovered from Jones. Jones, from Queensland, remained in hospital after the condoms were discovered. He was charged by Thai police with possession of narcotics, which carries a maximum jail term of five years. But tonight the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) confirmed the Queenslander died on Saturday. "A 50-year-old man who was hospitalised in Surat Thani in Thailand on the 11th of April ... he died on the 19th of April," a DFAT spokesman said, without naming Jones for privacy reasons. "His family has been advised of his death and, in co-ordination with the Australian embassy in Bangkok, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in Canberra is continuing to provide consular assistance to his family."The spokesman would not say how Jones had died, but the ABC has reported he died of septicaemia and liver failure. No decision had been made on the return of Jones' body to Australia, with the DFAT spokesman saying it was "a matter for his family to decide". "We will provide assistance depending on what they decide," he said.Provincial authorities speculated that Jones had swallowed the goods to get them past port inspectors at the pier to Phangan Island, notorious for its "full moon" parties, drug-fuelled all-night revels that attract hundreds of foreign tourists each month. Phangan Island, about 400km south of Bangkok, is part of Surat Thani province.