BANGKOK, Sept 1 – A Malaysian man and two suspected drug gang members were detained with 45 kilogrammes of crystal methamphetamine, commonly known as “ice,” in their possession in the southern province of Songkhla, Thai police said Thursday.
Mhages Paran Pathu together with two drug gang members and two unidentified Thai women were arrested in Songkhla’s Sadao district with 45 bars of crystal meth valued at an estimated Bt130 million ($4.33 million) hidden in their baggage, Police Chief Pol Gen Wichean Potephosree told a Thailand’s Narcotics Suppression Bureau (NSB) press briefing.
According to the initial investigation, the detainees said a friend paid them to travel to Thailand and asked them to carry three suitcases to Malaysia on their return, but they did not know that illicit drugs were hidden in their baggage.
The police did not believe the confessions as they had received a tip related to the drug trafficking syndicate.
Following the tip, the gang smuggled crystal meth from a neighbouring country in the northern region into the kingdom and transported it by bus to Sadao district. The drug was repacked in Bangkok before delivering it agents.
The suspects were initially charged with possessing illicit drugs for sale.
In another arrest, Noi Tocho, a Nakhon Phanom resident, was apprehended while delivering 80 kilogrammes of cannabis, worth Bt400,000 (about $13,000), to a member of a drug ring in That Phanom district in the northeastern province of Nakhon Phanom.
Mr Noi said that he was hired to deliver the drug to a Laotian agent for sale to customers in Nakhon Phanom and Thailand’s southern region.
