Police nab Chon Buri meth dealers after trying to sell via Facebook
In a recent sting operation, police nabbed two drug dealers on Wednesday with 63,500 meth pills in Chon Buri’s Sattahip district. The police were able to track the two suspects from their Facebook account “Nooka,” and set up a rendezvous with the suspects to lure them in for the arrest.
The first suspect, 28 year old Chotiwat “Nook” Koomsonklin, was arrested by the police with 60,000 meth pills hidden in his car, a white Honda Civic sedan. The arrest of the first suspect led to the arrest of the second suspect, Nattapong “Boy” Uthaikao, who was found hiding in a resort in the Bang Saray sub-district of Sattahip, with 3,563 meth pills in his possession.
According to the police, Chotiwat was a large dealer and supplier who primarily operated in Sattahip, The Pattaya News reported. Both suspects reportedly confessed to selling drugs, obtaining them from another dealer named “Mike” who was hiding in Cambodia.
The two men have been charged with possession of a Type-1 drug with the intent to sell and distribute. This bust highlights the continued efforts of Thai law enforcement to combat the illicit drug trade, and their commitment to removing these dangerous substances from the streets.
Meth continues to be the most popular, cheap, and readily available illicit narcotic in Thailand and Southeast Asia, where the synthetic drug trade is booming.
In 2021 alone, more than one billion meth pills were seized in east and Southeast Asia, according to a report released by the United Nations. The UN considers it the “drug of greatest concern” in the region.
In April 2021, Thai police arrested more than 120,000 drug suspects in the past six months. They seized more than 2.4 billion baht in assets and confiscated more than 260 million pills of illegal substances, including meth.
