Illegal drug bust: RTP arrest foreign duo and local ladies in Thailand cross-border narcotics scheme
Royal Thai Police officers yesterday arrested two foreign men and two Thai women for supplying illegal life-threatening drugs at home and abroad. The illegal products worth 6 million baht were confiscated.
The investigation into the illegal drugs in Thailand was conducted following a tip-off of a 33 year old Kazakhstani woman named Gaukhar Kussainova who illegally supplied dangerous weight loss drugs to people in Malaysia. The drug trafficker is also known as Maria Kim among her distributors.
Kussainova lured people in Malaysia to use her drugs after a strong advertising campaign promoting their effectiveness in weight loss on several social media platforms.
According to ThaiRath, the weight loss drugs included a harmful substance called Sibutramine. The chemical substance affects the central nervous system which stops users from feeling hungry.
Thai officers conducted a closer investigation into the drug and discovered it had flooded the China and Thailand markets. Soon after they arrested four suspects including…
- 26 year old Pakistani man named Shabir Ullah
- 58 year old Filipino man named Anthony Verde
- 32 year old Thai woman named Waranya Saengram
- 30 year old Thai woman named Pornpen Tapianthong.
Following a raid at the gang’s storage plant in Thailand, officers seized 270 weight loss products which were worth over 6 million baht.
The Pakistani man, Ullah, confessed that Kussainova ordered them to distribute the drugs to customers in Thailand and aboard. He received 20,000 to 25,000 baht per month.
According to the police report, the drugs were delivered to customers in 34 countries including the US, Australia, Singapore, England, China, and Malaysia. From January of this year until now, over 3 million baht was circulating in the company’s bank accounts.
After officers conducted a further investigation on the case, they discovered that the gang did not manufacture the drugs from scratch. The gang mixed the weight loss pills with Sibutramine before packing and delivering them to customers. The police then discovered that the doctor who approved the medicine for the gang was a doctor specialising in traditional Chinese medicine and was forbidden to order drugs for customers.
Kussainova also hired a Thai person to pretend to be a Yanhee Hospital patient to promote the weight loss pills.
In Thailand, Sibutramine was taken out of the drug registration by the Food and Drug Administration in 2010 because it has a serious effect on the cardiovascular system which can lead to death. Sibutramine is now included in Drug Category 1 list.
The four suspects were initially charged with selling Drug Category 1 narcotics and selling drugs without permission. The doctor and relevant officers from Yanhee Hospital were also charged with selling drugs without permission.
