More than 300 kilograms of heroin en route to Australia seized at Chon Buri port

More than 300 kilograms of heroin hidden in paint buckets was seized from a shipping container at a major port in Chon Buri just as it was about to be sent to Australia. Thailand’s Justice Minister ordered authorities to work with foreign agencies to investigate transnational drug trafficking with routes in Thailand after the May drug bust in Australia involving the large shipment of methamphetamine found on a Thai cargo ship.

A team of officers from the Customs Department and the Office of the Narcotics Control Board searched a container truck at the coastal province’s Laem Chabang Port packed with 135 buckets of acrylic paint. Inside each of the buckets, police found a brown plastic package with around 2.4 kilograms of heroin. Altogether, police seized 314 kilograms of heroin said to be valued at 943 million baht, according to the Customs Department director-general.

“The department has contacted the Australia Embassy to find the recipient and will investigate the network behind this drug smuggling operation… The department together with the ONCB and related agencies have seized more than 1.8 tonnes of heroin so far this year before they were shipped to foreign destinations.”

In May, Australian Border Force found more than 300 kilograms of methamphetamine hidden in electric water heaters and barbeque grills on a Thai cargo ship. Thai authorities investigating the case found that the cargo had also been loaded onto a vessel in Chon Buri’s Laem Chabang Port.

SOURCE: Nation Thailand