With another high season revving up, police made their annual sweep of pharmacies illegally selling sedatives and tranquilizers.
Almost exactly a year after their last crack down on drug stores, Pattaya and Tourist police again visited 36 pharmacies Nov. 27, making arrests at three.
At Buakaow Pharmacy, employee Niphattrasa “Ice” Laosakul, 23, was taken into custody as officers seized a large quantity of alprazolam, the generic version of popular sedative Xanex. Employee Jarin Rattamanee, 29, was taken into custody on similar charges at R&D Pharmacy. And at 168 Pharmacy, owner Surachai Suksawang, 43, was jailed and 70 generic Xanex, 30 Diazapam and 58 Xiemed, another Xanex knockoff, were seized.
Police announce their big arrest.
Dr. Wuthikrai Saksurakan of the Chonburi Public Health Department, noted that Pattaya has experienced an increasing number of drug-related robberies by prostitutes in recent years. Both this and last year’s raid were aimed at cutting down on the supply of drugs hookers use to knock out customers before robbing them.
In a related show for the cameras, Tourist Police officers rounded up 36 suspected transvestite prostitutes from Beach Road, fined them a minor sum and released them to return to their posts under the palm trees.
