Pathum Thani noise complaint ends in multiple drug busts
You can make some noise, or you can break some laws, but you should avoid doing both. After neighbours complained of a Pathum Thani condo in a luxury building making excessive noise, police checked it out and uncovered a drug-dealing operation. The investigation led to several arrests.
The Department Of Provincial Administration joined the district chief of Klong Luang in Pathum Thani to investigate the noise complaint and ended up setting up a sting operation that culminated in a drug bust instead of just a noise violation.
The sting offered a low-level drug deal of just 500 baht and ensnared a 26 year old Thai man and a 24 year old Thai man who was a fourth year university student. The Pathum Thani bust recovered the 500 baht from the drug deal as well as 2 full marijuana plants and imported heads for growing, weighing just over 46 grams. Other paraphanalia and evidence was seized too.
The raid was a small one, but police leveraged the young dealers to try to climb up the supply chain for a more significant bust. The 2 small-time dealers rolled over on another location in Pathum Thani just a few kilometres where police encountered 4 people doing drugs.
Police found and seized 514 grams of compressed marijuana on the premise in the second bust. They also made 2 more arrests related to the case including following the trail from the busts to locate and arrest a drug runner who was stopped in the middle of a delivery. He had 182 grams of marijuana on him.
The man claimed that he had no idea that the parcels he was delivering contained illegal drugs, saying that a woman who looked like a normal vendor told him he was just delivering cakes, for which he was paid a mere 280 baht.
SOURCE: ASEAN Now