Pattaya police bottle kratom cocktail racket in midnight raids
Cocktail crackdown sees 2,000+ bottles seized in Bang Lamung sweep
Pattaya police smashed a dodgy kratom cocktail flogging souped-up brews to youngsters, and they’ve got the bottles to prove it.
Police in the Bang Lamung district swooped on shops flogging illegal kratom 4×100 concoctions late on yesterday, June 10, seizing over 2,000 bottles of the controversial brew and cough syrup used to spike it.
District Chief Patcharapat Sritanyanon ordered the raid, which kicked off at 10.16pm, following a barrage of complaints from fed-up locals. The operation, led by Deputy District Chief Kamphrai Laosaen and backed by Bang Lamung Territorial Defence Volunteers, hit six locations across the district.
The crackdown targeted outlets accused of selling the potent mix to teenagers, including several shops previously busted but brazenly back in business.
At Pathum Kratom Leaf in Soi Khao Talo, police found a full-scale production line inside a three-storey commercial unit.
The bottom floor was a shopfront, but upstairs told a different story, 130 bottles of cough syrup brands like Benadryl were found on the second floor, with the top floor housing brewing gear, dozens of chilled kratom bottles, and bags stuffed with over 300 empty syrup boxes.
In Soi Praphanimit, another shop was found with more than 300 refrigerated kratom drinks ready for sale. Syringes and open containers of cough syrup were laid out for customers to spike their drinks on the spot. A backroom stash revealed a whopping 1,300 bottles of cough syrup and a full set of brewing kit.
Further raids in Pattaya, Nong Prue, and other parts of Bang Lamung turned up an extra 100+ bottles of kratom drink. All shop owners were cuffed and taken to local police stations to face charges, District Chief Patcharapat warned.
“We won’t tolerate this. Anyone producing or selling 4×100 drinks will be arrested and prosecuted. No exceptions.”
While kratom leaves were decriminalised in Thailand in 2022, turning them into food or drink without a licence is still illegal, especially when mixed with cough syrup to boost the high. On its own, kratom offers a buzz similar to caffeine, but these concoctions are far more dangerous, Pattaya News reported.
Officials say they’re committed to wiping out the trend, one bottle at a time.
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