Superstar 'Yuyee' is serving 15 years for importing a tiny quantity of drugs, but her Spanish celebrity husband says she is the victim of a nefarious revenge plot

A calendar in the children’s room marks the number of days their mother has been in jail. Alongside it, pictures and drawings they have made of her are pinned to a large board.

The case was on the front page of all local newspapers last year: superstar Chachchaya “Yuyee” Cuesta Ramos sentenced to 15 years for smuggling 251 milligrammes of cocaine.

It was the result, her family says, of an ordeal that involved a leopard rescue, encounters with powerful officials and a trumped-up drugs charge.

As the three Ramos children — aged three, eight and 11 — adapt to life without their mother, Sarit, the eldest, has a new obsession: trying to find the truth in Yuyee’s case.

Since last July he has printed every news article on the internet about his mother’s case.

“The kids are going crazy,” said their father Francisco Ramos, a Spanish TV presenter.

THE RESCUE

Mr Ramos and Yuyee, 42, have been involved in wildlife rescue efforts for more than a decade and have been volunteers at the Thai Animal Guardians Association (AGA) since 2002. In that time, the couple rescued more than 1,000 animals and released them into the wild.

When they received a phone call in May 2012 about a juvenile leopard being held at a remote house, they were able to rescue it and take it to authorities at Dusit Zoo a few days later.

The leopards are normally sent to Europe in suitcases, where they can fetch a price of 10,000 euros (about 380,000 baht). A rare black leopard, or one with a perfect pattern, can fetch up to five times that. The value of the four to five-month-old Indochinese leopard Mr Ramos and Yuyee rescued was estimated at about half a million baht.

“If we had known that leopard was going to somebody powerful, we wouldn’t have gone,” said Mr Ramos, who is a veterinarian and a TV host for the Discovery Channel.

A week after the rescue, Mr Ramos said, two uniformed policemen arrived at the couple’s house on a motorcycle and told them to prepare 400,000 baht. They gave no reason for demanding the cash.

But several weeks later, police raided their house, accusing the couple of possessing wild animals. Yuyee explained that the 50 animals had been rescued and were being held in “quarantine” prior to release into national parks. Officers confiscated four snakes and an owl.

AGA secretary-general Roger Lohanan accompanied the police on the day of the incident in an attempt to explain to them that Yuyee was a volunteer, and that the animals were injured and could not yet be released. He said the organisation’s volunteers are usually exempt from the law, as they work together with forestry officials.

“But there was probably a complication on that day, such as the large media presence at the time,” he told Spectrum.

TAGGED: Yuyee’s prison ID, which states her crime, the amount of cocaine was 5mg, and her sentence.

That the law provides an exemption for the possession of protected wild animals only for research purposes leaves many animal-lovers at risk of arrest, said Mr Lohanan, when in fact they could simply be helping a bird with broken wings.

“The problem with Thai law is that it is selective,” he said. “[Authorities] turn a blind eye to those with connections and animal traffickers.”

A month after the raid, Mr Ramos said, plain clothes policemen returned in a black pickup truck, dressed in boots, pants and white shirts, and demanded the 400,000 baht payment.

“I asked why we had to pay,” said Mr Ramos. “They said ‘kid noi, kid noi’ [think about it]. Then they told me it [the leopard] was going to be sent to someone. The money was for the damage as a result of setting the leopard free.”

Mr Ramos refused to pay.

IN DEMAND: Yuyee was once a popular and sought-after model.

‘SHE WAS FRAMED’

On Nov 10, 2012, Mr Ramos received an anonymous phone call. “Mr Frank, come to the airport. Yuyee has drugs.”

The call came 20 minutes before Yuyee’s plane from Vietnam landed at Don Mueang airport. The former model has a previous history of illegal drug use, but her husband says she had been clean for more than a decade.

When Mr Ramos arrived at the airport 10 minutes after the plane had landed, he asked to see the cocaine that Yuyee had allegedly been caught with. The police refused, saying they had already analysed the drugs.

According to the original police arrest statement seen by Spectrum, Yuyee was carrying 5mg of cocaine — about 12 baht worth based on current street value, and substantially less than a single line of the drug.

But Yuyee was eventually convicted of importing 50 times that amount.

In the restroom at the airport, Mr Ramos said a man who he assumed was a plain clothes policeman approached him and told him in English: “Remember, you still have to pay 400,000 baht.”

According to court documents seen by Spectrum, a police officer testified that he went inside the women’s restroom after his colleague heard a scream. He found Yuyee inside. The officer searched her bag, where he said he found the cocaine inside an M&M’s packet.

Yuyee was denied access to a lawyer and was not given a urine test despite asking for one at the police station.

She initially confessed that the cocaine was hers, and that it had been left over from her trip in Vietnam. Later on in court, she would testify that since it was a very small amount, the police at the airport had promised to release her if she signed a confession.

In her revised testimony, Yuyee claimed that she felt sick and went to the restroom to vomit. She said a stranger then suggested that she eat some chocolate, and offered her the packet of M&M’s.

The moment Yuyee signed a confession at the airport, she was handcuffed and taken to Don Muang police station, where she was jailed for two days. Mr Ramos paid 10,000 baht bail, and was given back his cell phone — which had been confiscated by police after he used it to record parts of the arrest. The memory card was missing.

The trial in May last year lasted only three hours, with four witnesses for the prosecution.

Mr Ramos was initially scheduled to provide testimony on the second day of the trial, but that was cancelled, leaving Yuyee the only person to give evidence in her defence.

In the court documents, the amount of cocaine Yuyee was allegedly caught with jumped from 5mg to 251mg. Police claimed they did not have a machine at the airport or police station to properly weigh the drugs at the time of arrest. One of the prosecution witnesses, a police officer, told the court that Yuyee herself had come up with the 5mg figure.

A week after Yuyee went to jail, her lawyer resigned, saying he was scared and did not want to have more problems. The second lawyer they hired also resigned, saying the case was “very complicated”.

RESCUER: The former model was a volunteer for an organisation which saved endangered animals. HAPPIER TIMES: Yuyee’s husband Francisco Ramos is known as ‘Frank of the jungle’ on his TV show and also worked with his wife saving animals.

THE SENTENCE

On June 12 last year Yuyee was sentenced to 15 years in prison and slapped with a 1.5-million-baht fine for importing 251mg of cocaine. She was sentenced to an additional three months for the case related to possession of wildlife.

As soon as the judge read the sentence, Yuyee was handcuffed and sent to jail.

“Our whole life was completely smashed,” said Mr Ramos. “Fourteen years together trying to buy a house and take care of the family … so much hard work and suddenly, just because of some corrupted system, everything was smashed.”

The 251mg figure was the result of a drug test conducted by the Department of Medical Sciences’ Bureau of Drugs and Narcotics on Nov 14, 2012, according to official documents seen by Spectrum. A month later, the results were delivered to Don Muang police. Yuyee’s charge was upgraded from possession to importation. The actual cocaine was never presented as evidence in court.

The judge dismissed the significant disparity in the weight of the drug, arguing that government officials handling the case had no motivation to wrongly prosecute the defendant.

Chaiwat Detpathum, a lawyer specialising in drug crimes, said the 15-year sentence was considered low for a case involving the import of narcotics.

Cocaine is classified as a category II drug under the 1979 Narcotics Act, meaning anyone who produces, imports or exports it faces jail time of 20 years to life, and a fine of two to five million baht.

Yuyee’s term was reduced by a quarter of the original sentence of 20 years due to mitigating circumstances.

“The penalty related to the import of drugs does not take into account the amount,” said Mr Chaiwat.

Yuyee’s current lawyer, who preferred not to be named, said he lodged an appeal against his client’s conviction last year and is hoping to bring up inconsistencies in the weight of the recovered cocaine as one of the main arguments.

Mr Ramos has already applied for bail six times, offering up to three million baht in surety, while the appeal is heard, arguing that the welfare of Yuyee’s three children was at stake. But all requests, including two instances when the couple’s eight-year-old son had to undergo heart surgery, have been denied.

Yuyee’s lawyer said it would be unlikely that the court will approve further requests for bail.

DEVOTED MUM: Yuyee poses with her children and husband Francisco before her arrest in 2012. COURTING TROUBLE: Yuyee and one of her lawyers outside the Criminal Court before she was sentenced to 15 years.

‘SHE LOOKS LIKE SH*T’

Mr Ramos takes the children to visit their mother at the Central Women’s Correctional Institution every Friday, although they are not allowed any physical contact. She shares a 45m² cell with 70 inmates.

A picture of Yuyee taken two weeks ago and seen by Spectrum shows her wearing a badge on her prison uniform with details of her conviction. It lists her offence as being caught with 5mg of cocaine.

“She looks like sh*t,” said Mr Ramos. “She is stressed to the point of ‘I’m gonna kill myself’. She will kill herself one day.”

Mr Ramos believes Yuyee’s past history of drug use had been used as a convenient factor for authorities to press charges against her, although he claims she has been clean of drugs for the past 13 years. Since then, she has undergone rehabilitation, attending Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous meetings.

“I’m not saying that Yuyee was a saint in the past,” said Mr Ramos. “But I can assure 100% she didn’t consume cocaine at the time of her detention.”

On June 12, Yuyee marked exactly one year since her incarceration. Spectrum tried to visit her as a friend, but was told to wait one month for approval.

“The Thai way is that you shut up, listen and wait. But it’s one year, and my kids have to be with their mother,” Mr Ramos said. “This is not justice. This is corruption; trying to cover up police mistakes.

“After six petitions denied and seeing that somebody with a lot of power wanting her inside, it [talking to the media] is the only alternative at the moment, even if it costs me a bullet in my head.”

Sarit, Yuyee’s eldest son, quit playing football at school after receiving taunts from his peers. “Don’t fight with him, his mother sells drugs,” he heard at a school football match.

He reads everything he can find on the internet related to his mother’s case.

“If they cannot prove that the drugs were at the airport, why is she in jail?” the 11-year-old once asked his dad. “Papa, normally if you take sugar and you analyse sugar, a part of what you analyse is lost. But in the case of mama, it is exactly 50 times plus one milligramme more.”

The question from Sahapol, the couple’s eight-year-old son, was more straightforward: “Papa, who is going to help you? If the police are the bad people, to whom can we go to?”

FREE: Yuyee rescuing the leopard in 2012, which her husband says landed her in trouble with police.

LOSING HOPE

Yuyee’s case has gained increasing international attention, with big-name stars such as Shakira, singer-songwriter Alejandro Sanz, tennis player Rafael Nadal and soccer player Leonel Messi retweeting the #freeyuyee hashtag.

Freeyuyee gained the status of a “trending topic” on Twitter on three to four occasions;

the latest was on Yuyee’s one-year anniversary in jail.

Two months ago, Mr Ramos started a campaign on Change.org to collect 500,000 signatures to petition the Thai government to review Yuyee’s case. The campaign has received overwhelming support from Spaniards and now has more than 357,700 signatories.

“At the moment, Spain can’t do anything because of the European community,” said Mr Ramos. “Europe has no official contact [with the Thai government] until there is democracy again.”

Mr Ramos was well known worldwide as a tennis coach before he started hosting a TV show on the Discovery Channel five years ago. His programme, Wild Frank, is aired in 24 countries including Thailand, and Mr Ramos is known as “Frank of the jungle” in Spanish.

Because of his work, Mr Ramos travels out of the country on alternate months, leaving the three children at home with their maid.

At a Starbucks branch on Sukhumvit Road, he brings along a stack of documents, a laptop and a blue and yellow Sesame Street children’s backpack only slightly taller than an iPhone.

He showed Spectrum a video of the day he and Yuyee rescued the leopard in 2012. As she got in a car after transferring the leopard from the cage at the captor’s house to a blue basket, the exact same Sesame Street bag was slung over Yuyee’s shoulder.

“This one,” Mr Ramos said, turning the bag so that Big Bird is facing the front, “was when we first had our twins. We put diapers and things in it for the kids; she carries one and I carry another.”

Sarit’s twin brother died 11 years ago. “That way, we remember,” he said. “I know it’s silly. But unfortunately she can’t have it [the bag] now.”

Mr Ramos visits Yuyee several times per week, where she mostly cries when he mentions the children. One time, a psychologist talked to her and told her to accept her crime and her damage to society.

“This is going to grow to the point that something will happen to me, or Yuyee in jail,” said Mr Ramos. “The next thing that can happen is they shoot me in the head. And everything for what? For money, for a leopard, for pride.”