A TUGBOAT to be used to tow a ship about to smuggle a large amount of drugs to Taiwan and the Philippines territorial waters was seized and the ship’s captain arrested today (Dec. 18), TV Channel said.
Pol. Lt. Gen. Santi Chainiramai, acting chief of Narcotics Suppression Bureau, said this is a large international drug network with 19 people having been arrested so far.
Mr. Noppadol (surname withheld), a key suspect who has fled overseas, is the one who plans the drug trafficking routes in the Andaman Sea and the Gulf of Thailand with the destination being the territorial waters of Taiwan and the Philippines.
The ongoing investigation started on Dec. 6 last year when one tonne of crystal methamphetamine and 1.2 tonnes of Ketamine were seized just as the illegal consignment was being loaded from a pickup truck to a boat moored at the Bang Pakong pier, Chachoengsao province.
After this big drug seizure, arrest warrants were issued for four suspects, with the other three aside from Noppadol being Mr. Chanon, Mr. Niran and Mr. Chanchai who have all fled the country.
Even so, police seized 140 million baht of assets belonging to Chanchai and his associates including a house with land, a restaurant, a shipping business company, cash, gold jewelry, amulets and many cars.
Later in August this year police investigators found out that more drugs were to be smuggled by speed boat at a port in Takat Ngao subdistrict, Tha Mai district, Chanthaburi province. The operation they mounted led to the seizure of 1.5 tonnes of crystal methamphetamine and arrest of Mr. Anon and nine accomplices. Assets worth more than 10 million baht were seized including a house with land and cars.
Further investigation led to the arrest of two people with warrants issued for eight others.
As Anon had told police that Noppadol had ordered the purchase of a tugboat to tow two large ships from Batam, Indonesia, with one named Sumber Ocean, and they were to be captained by Mr. Somkid, a police team arrested him just as he was about to bring the ship for repairs at Thepha pier, in southern Songkhla province, on organised crime and drug trafficking charges.
They also seized a tugboat, a house with land, cars and other assets in Trang worth over 20 million baht.
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