Narcotics police nab Bangkok drug kingpin

Narcotics suppression police have raided the Bangkok house of a suspected drug boss, who is a registered taxi motorcycle driver, seized two cars, 2 million Baht and a bank account book with transactions totalling some 60 million Baht.

Jirat Pensophon was arrested early Tuesday morning at a house in the Casa Ville Rajapruek housing estate on Rajapruek Road in Nonthaburi’s Pak Kret district.

The operation was led by Narcotics Suppression Bureau commissioner Lt-General Sommai Kongwisaisuk.

Sommai said an arrest warrant had been issued for Jirat, who also allegedly collaborated with other people to launder drug money. He says Jirat was suspected of being a drug-ring boss based on information police had received from suspects arrested last year when police seized one million methamphetamine pills and 400 kilograms of crystal meth.

Sommai alleges Jirat ran the operation using cellphones with prepaid SIM cards that he had migrants register.

After a SIM card was used, it was destroyed to prevent police tracing it back to him, Sommai said.

The gang allegedly sold drugs in Bangkok and other urban areas, Sommai said. He said Jirat denied the charges but there is strong evidence against him.

He said Jirat was arrested in 2004 on drug trafficking charges but was acquitted by the Supreme Court in 2012.

The bureau received help from other police agencies to carry out simultaneous searches at houses suspected of belonging to members of Jirat’s alleged drug ring around the country. Sommai said 14 searches were carried out in Bangkok, 20 searches were conducted in the jurisdiction of the Provincial Police Bureau 1, four were held in Provincial Police Bureau 3’s and five in Provincial Police Bureau 4’s jurisdiction.

Story from The Nation.