South Korean man arrested in Pattaya for drug smuggling

Pattaya police yesterday arrested a South Korean man for illegally entering Thailand and smuggling drugs into the kingdom.

Pattaya Tourist Police yesterday, August, 14, received a tip-off that a South Korean man, later identified as Kim Jinjong, had entered Thailand from a neighbouring country. Further investigation revealed that Jinjong was staying in a village in the Bang Lamung district of Chon Buri.

Tourist police raided the house, where Jinjong was present. The South Korean man admitted to illegally entering Thailand via a forest in the Isaan province of Sa Kaeo.

Police searched the house and found various drugs, including 1.5 grammes of crystal meth, 0.4 grammes of ecstasy, and drug paraphernalia. Jinjong then led officers to his condominium in Pattaya, but no illegal items were found on the premises.

According to the police report, Jinjong is on the blacklist and banned from entering Thailand because he overstayed his visa by 1,864 days, or about five years, in 2015. He would be allowed to enter the country legally again on December 27, 2029, but he violated this restriction.

Jinjong faces two main legal charges:

• Section 81 of the Immigration Act: Residing in the country with expired permission. Jinjong will be transferred to South Korea for further prosecution on money laundering charges.
• Section 145 of the Narcotics Control Act: Possession of a Category 1 drug, which carries a penalty of imprisonment from two to 20 years and a fine of 200,000 to 2 million baht.

In a related report, an Indian man was arrested at Don Mueang International Airport in Bangkok in January for smuggling cocaine worth 17 million baht into Thailand.

Another foreigner, a Nigerian man, was arrested at Suvarnabhumi International Airport in Bangkok for possessing 1.4 kilogrammes of cocaine. The man was found to have swallowed 69 capsules filled with the drugs to conceal them from officials.

In March, a British drug dealer was arrested on Koh Tao, an island in the southern province of Surat Thani, after being caught selling ecstasy and LSD to other foreign tourists on the island.