Burmese magnate Tun Min Latt walks free from drug trafficking trial
The Criminal Court acquitted Myanmar magnate Tun Min Latt and Senator Upakit Pacharirangkun’s son-in-law, Dean Young Gultula, of drug trafficking charges. The ruling cited insufficient evidence, leaving jaws dropping in disbelief.
The charges were filed against Tun Min Latt, the Myanmar businessman, and Gultula, along with two others and the Allure Group (P&E) Co., Ltd., an electricity supply business. The allegations suggested involvement in a criminal organisation, engaging in serious drug offences between February 22 and May 10, 2019. The accused supposedly conspired to procure methamphetamine, listed as narcotics (Category 1).
Roles were assigned to the accused, managing money transactions and dealing drugs through the company’s accounts. The entire operation was cunningly disguised as payment for electricity bills to the Provincial Electricity Authority in Chiang Rai’s Mae Sai district. Shockingly, funds allegedly gained from drug trafficking were funnelled into goods categorised as electricity supplies, and exported to Myanmar.
The trial unfolded in Khlong Luang District, Pathum Thani Province, and surrounding areas, where the accused staunchly denied all charges. However, the court’s bombshell decision rested on the belief that the main evidence, centred around financial trials, lacked the substance required to support the charges, reported Pattaya Mail.
Notably, Tun Min Latt, with alleged close ties to Myanmar junta Chief Min Aung Hlaing and procurement ties to the military, had been arrested in Bangkok in September 2022 on charges of conspiring to traffic narcotics and money laundering.
In related news, on January 17, a Thai court dismissed a case against a postal worker accused of being involved in a drug trafficking incident. The case pertained to the seizure of a parcel containing 6,000 ecstasy pills, intercepted at the Bangkok Post Centre in Hua Lamphong, Bangkok, on October 17, 2022. The parcel was traced back to Germany.
In other news, assets belonging to the children of Myanmar’s junta chief Min Aung Hlaing have been found in a Bangkok condominium. Documents were discovered during a September raid on the apartment of a Myanmar arms dealer charged with drug trafficking and money laundering.
