ACTING on a tip-off, police arrested four Hong Kongers just as they were loading a suitcase packed with 14 kilogrammes of heroin at Suvarnabhumi Airport last evening (June 23), Naewna newspaper said this evening.
Pol. Lt. Gen. Phanurat Lakboon, secretary-general of the Office of the Narcotics Control Board, and Mr. Purin Meganan, director at this agency, together with Pol. Maj. Gen. Adis Charoensawat, chief of Narcotics Suppression Bureau third division, and Mr. Panthong Loikulnan, an advisor at the Customs Department, said at a press briefing that Thai police were tipped off by their Hong Kong counterparts about this drug smuggling attempt.
Hong Kong police had said that Mr. Leung Wai Kit, a major drug dealer there, and Mr. Chun He Chow would be coming here to procure drugs.
Purin was tasked with coordinating with the Airport Interdiction Task Force (AITF) in closely investigating them.
Upon learning that Leung Wai Kit would be arriving at Suvarnabhumi Airport at 7 p.m. yesterday, Mr. Kittipong Kittikachorn, director of Suvarnabhumi Airport, was alerted to search and detain him and his accomplices.
The four of them were arrested just as they had loaded their suitcases onto a conveyor belt with 40 packages of heroin, totaling 14 kilogrammes, found in one of them.
Purin said the four suspects had been ordered by their commander, also a Hong Kong citizen, to travel to Thailand and fly back with the heroin.
They had stayed at a hotel and someone came and delivered the drug to them with police going through surveillance camera clips to identify this person.
It is likely that Thais too were involved in transporting the drug from the Golden Triangle.
The suspects confessed that this is their second attempt to fly drugs back from Bangkok to Hong Kong with the first run being last month.
Meanwhile Panthong said that X-ray inspection at airports only detects dangerous objects such as explosives and firearms, and drug traffickers usually conceal narcotics in packages or products to slip through.
However officials will now be more stringent to prevent drugs from being flown overseas.
CAPTION:
The 14kg of heroin that was seized at Suvarnabhumi Airport just as it was being flown to Hong Kong and senior officers briefing the press about this drug bust. Photos: Naewna
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