Huge Bangkok bar raided as police arrest underage and customers for drug possession
Despite the ‘official’ closing time for nightlife venues around Bangkok being extended to midnight, from 11pm, on June 1, many venues have continued to push their luck with authorities for the last few months. This venue since February.
Yesterday morning Pathumwan district police raided a bar in Bangkok’s Rong Muang area after receiving a tip off that the venue had been admitting underage customers and operating until 4am.
And this was not a small venue. Some 500 Thai and foreign patrons were inside when police and provincial officials entered the venue. All customers and staff were tested for drugs with 18 testing positive (for crystal methamphetamine and ecstasy). Another 5 were under 20 years of age.
Police also found small packs of drugs scattered on the floor and were collected as evidence when police prosecute the offenders.
Thai PBS World reports that police speculated that the drugs were purchased by customers and used in the toilets, with the venue’s security guarding the entrances to the restrooms.
The venue was a converted car maintenance garage, which had been turned into a nightlife venue, mainly targeting foreign tourists, but had been closed since 2018. There was no signage and access was hidden by a sequence of steel and ‘secret’ doorways.
The venue had been operating illegally since earlier this year when tourists started coming back to Bangkok under the Thailand Pass.
But nightlife venues were only given the ‘official’ not to reopen as pubs and bars since June 1.
He said the pub resumed allegedly illegal operation in February this year.
Police say the venue owner and managers will face charges, including selling alcohol after hours, operating a venue without a license, selling liquor to underage patrons and drug abuse on the premises.
Meanwhile, the Metropolitan Police Bureau have immediately transferred the superintendent of the Pathumwan police station, 2 deputies and the chief inspector to the 6th division of Metropolitan Police Bureau. An investigation will check whether they had been complicit in allowing the illegal operation of the venue since February this year.
SOURCE: Thai PBS World
