THAI Office of Narcotics Control Board (ONCB) officials together with a team of navy officers raided a passenger ship anchored off Phuket’s Ao Chalong pier and seized half a tonne of crystal methamphetamine (Ice) and some Ketamine which were being taken to Indonesia, Naewna newspaper said today (Sep. 29).
ONCB Secretary-General Pol. Gen. Panurat Lakboon said four suspects were rounded in this raid but one of them jumped into the sea with his mobile phone and drowned but this cell phone has been recovered as evidence.
Seized on board the Thai-flagged passenger ship were 502kg Ice and 600 grammes of Ketamine with investigators also raiding three suspects’ residences in Ranong province where they seized an additional 5 million baht of assets.
Pol. Gen. Panurat said more Ice is now being seized at sea with this showing that drug traffickers, whose crime bosses mainly reside in Myanmar and Laos, are evading sealed borders in Kanchanaburi, the North and the Northeast.
Asean nations were urged to jointly pressure these criminals and seize more drugs.
Mr. Prin Mekanan, ONCB’s director, said this big drug seizure stemmed from the Thai navy’s intelligence unit having found out that a drug network was preparing to transport a large quantity of narcotics to a third country.
This unusually large Thai-flagged vessel was then spotted anchored off Phuket’s Ao Chalong pier with the crew also behaving in a suspicious manner.
In searching the passenger ship the team also uncovered vacuum packaging equipment and hand-operated bag-sealing machine and a large number of large, empty tea bags.
Upon being questioned the suspects said their ship sailed from Ranong province to a spot near Kawthaung, Myanmar, where a long-tailed boat with two crewmen brought them a tonne of Ice packed in 40 sacks.
They then sailed to Satun to deliver the drug but as no one came so they sailed to Ao Chalong pier. Two men then brought the machines and they proceeded to pack the Ice into the large tea bags then put them in sacks. This took three days.
The suspect then handed over 20 sacks of Ice, approximately 500kg, to someone who came in a speedboat to pick them up off Satun with the remaining 20 sacks to be taken to Indonesia but bad weather forced them to shelter at Ao Chalong Bay where they were arrested.
So far this year six suspects have been arrested in Thai waters with a total of 7.3 tonnes of Ice seized. In addition nine other suspects were rounded up in Southeast Asian international waters with altogether 18.1 tonnes of Ice and 3.4 tonnes of Ketamine seized. The destinations of these drugs were the Philippines, Taiwan, Australia, Indonesia and Malaysia.
CAPTION:
Press briefing on seizure of a big lot of Ice and some Ketamine today. Photos – Naewna
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