Bangkok drug bust: 5 foreign drug dealers arrested, 5 others still at large

Narcotics Suppression Bureau (NSB) officers arrested five foreign drug dealers for trading illicit narcotics in the Sukhumvit and Nana neighbourhoods of Bangkok and detained nine others for violating the Immigration Act.

NSB Chief Kirisak Tantinawachai reported to PPTV HD that officers launched an investigation called Operation Mouse Hunt 1 in October last year and managed to arrest seven foreign drug suspects and seize valuables worth 2.5 million baht.

Officers conducted a further investigation and discovered more foreign drug dealers. The group was found openly advertising and offering crystal meth and cocaine to foreigners in the Sukhumvit and Nana areas. A foreign police spy posed as a customer and bought drugs from the group until police successfully identified 10 dealers.

Operation Mouse Hunt 2 was launched last week. Officers raided several residences in the Phra Kanong district of Bangkok and managed to arrest five out of the 10 dealers including four Nigerian nationals and one Ivorian national.

Officers revealed that these drug dealers, aged between 30 and 35 years old, entered Thailand in 2022 on tourist visas. They then managed to change their visas to student visas. Their financial transactions led to their Thai girlfriends, so police summoned the Thai nationals involved for questioning.

At each accommodation, officers arrested nine more foreigners for violating the Immigration Act. Three of them overstayed their visas, one entered the country illegally, and five others were unable to present their passports and documents.

One of the nine foreigners also possessed a lot of counterfeit US dollar bills and fake gold. The person claimed that the bills belonged to his friend, not him. Officers found that the fake banknotes were made using a technique popular among criminal groups in Africa.

Officers added that Thailand had never seen banknotes made using this technique before and they would be conducting a further investigation into the counterfeit money and gold.

In a related report on a foreign drug trafficker in Thailand, a Thai woman narrowly escaped being charged with drug smuggling thanks to the help of her father. She was hired by a Laotian man to transport cushions from Thailand to Australia. However, her father managed to find out the cushions were packed with 7.5 kilogrammes of cocaine.