Four Busts in Thailand Net a $US 3.6 Million Drug Haul

Thailand’s Narcotics Suppression Bureau (NSB) has announced four major drug busts with seizures topping $US 3.6 Million dollars in value. Assistant national police chief Pol Lt Gen Wissanu Prasartthong-osod told a press briefing on Wednesday.

One involved an Kenyan woman who swallowed a kilogram of cocaine to evade a customs check at Suvarnabhumi airport.

In the first case:

Napat Pattarakan, 31, was arrested for allegedly having about 300,000 methamphetamine pills in his possession in Phayuha Khiri district of Nakhon Sawan.

The tablets were hidden inside a secret compartment of his pickup truck. He was taking the drugs to Nakhon Sawan from a northern border.

Police said they also impounded a car used to escort the delivery vehicle. The was found abandoned near a school in the district in Nakhon Sawan, in northeastern Thailand.

In the second case:

Paithoon Ngernlua, and Nathee Saeng-orn, both 38, were nabbed separately in Chiang Rai and Phayao, Thailand.

Mr Paithoon was arrested in tambon Rob Wiang of Chiang Rai and Mr Nathee at a roadside checkpoint in Phayao.

According to the NSB, the police intercepted Mr Paithoon in a shopping mall car park in downtown Chiang Rai. A search of his van uncovered 680,000 meth pills that were likely produced and smuggled in from a neighbouring country.

In the third case:

Wan Prompanya, 55, was apprehended by police with 30kg of crystal meth or ya ice. The crystal meth was hidden in his car at the Mae Kachan hot springs in Wiang Pa Pao district of Chiang Rai, Thailand.

The arrest followed a tip-off that he was planning to deliver drugs to a customer in neighbouring Chiang Mai.

In the last case, an Kenyan woman, identified as Suamu Nkele, was caught by customs officers at Suvarnabhumi airport. She tried to bring in a kilogram of cocaine into Thailand.

Most of it was found in her stomach and some had been hidden in her socks and underwear. The woman arrived in Bangkok from Luanda, the Angolan capital.