Police officer arrested for using and selling Yaba from police station

Officers of Nong Pling Police Station in the central province of Nakhon Sawan arrested a colleague for selling methamphetamine, also known as Yaba, on the police premises.

Nong Pling Police Station‘s narcotics suppression unit discovered 55 year old Police Sub-lieutenant Suttirat Ampasawet offering drugs to addicts in the province. Officers then posed as customers and ordered 50 tablets of Yaba from Suttirat for 1,500 baht.

Suttirat asked the undercover officers to pick up the drugs at Nong Pling Police Station at 2.30pm on January 15. Unaware of being monitored, Suttirat met the officers outside the police station for the drug sale.

Officers immediately arrested Suttirat with clear evidence. They raided Suttirat’s home and discovered 40 more Yaba tablets hidden on the premises. Suttirat later underwent a drug test where results revealed narcotics in his system, reported ThaiRath.

Suttirat faces two charges including:

• Section 145 of the Narcotics Control Act: possessing Category 1 drug (methamphetamine) for sale. The penalty is imprisonment from two to 20 years and a fine of 200,000 to 2 million baht.
• Section 162 of the Narcotics Control Act: using Category 1 drug (methamphetamine). The penalty is imprisonment of up to one year, a fine of up to 20,000 baht, or both.

Suttirat is not the first Thai police officer arrested for betraying his badge. A police sergeant from the Office of Police Forensic Science in the Isaan province of Mukdahan and his 17 year old wife were arrested for selling drugs in April last year. Some 1,900 tablets of Yaba were seized from their car.

Another police officer was arrested in the northern province of Nakon Panom in October last year for stealing 1 kilogramme of crystal meth from Mueang Nakhon Panom Police Station. The officer was responsible for guarding the drug which was seized from a drug dealer, but the CCTV camera clearly showed the officer stealing the drug from the storage.