Customs seizes 175 million baht of ketamine heading to Taiwan

In a huge drug bust, ketamine with a street value of 175 million baht was seized by customs officials in Bangkok, stopping the drugs from leaving the country. The officials recovered 50 kilogrammes of ketamine at Bangkok Port that were scheduled to be sent illegally to Taiwan.

The Customs Department uncovered the criminal drug shipment at the port right before they were set to be exported to Taiwan. The ketamine had been packaged up in disguise and declared at customs to be vacuum sealers, according to the director-general of the Customs Department.

The large bust is another in a series of 93 different busts since last October that has pulled a total of 2.3 billion baht worth of drugs off the illegal narcotics market. Authorities have been battling a rise in smuggling as Thailand, as well as the rest of the world, has opened up more coming out of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Increased travel and relaxed restrictions for international movement have led to a surge of people bringing illegal items on flights in and out of the country. The customs director-general says they have found up to 10 kg of illegal drugs on airbourne smugglers at a time. Multiple reminders have been made to try to prevent people from carrying cannabis on flights despite its decriminalization last month in Thailand. The Ministry of Commerce restates that importing and exporting cannabis is still illegal under Thai Law.

The bust of Taiwan-bound ketamine stopped the drugs from moving, but customs did not identify who the sender was nor who was set to receive the shipment. But they definitely hurt someone’s pocketbook. The net pricing for that amount of ketamine in Thailand is about 15 million baht. But on the wholesale market in Taiwan, 50 kg mg could easily fetch 87.5 million baht, while direct retail sales of that amount of the drug would be worth about 175 million baht.

SOURCE: Thai News Agency MCOT