Drug suspects “attempted to bribe police’
PHUKET TOWN: Two alleged ya bah dealers arrested by Phuket Town police on Friday got themselves into even bigger trouble when they tried to bribe officers to release them. Pol Maj Prakarn Permwassana, inspector of the Phuket Town investigation team, told the Gazette that officers had received information that ya bah dealers were due in town, that they would be driving a Krabi-registered Isuzu, and that the “buy” would be taking place in the Damrong Hotel on Luang Por Wat Chalong Road. Plainclothes police, after seeing a car matching the description, stopped its two occupants at the hotel’s check-in desk. They found one of the men, Yabock Prathan, in possession of 960 pills of ya bah. He and his companion – Subo Khaotong, a former puyai baan from Krabi – were taken downtown where they were charged with trafficking. At the station, the two men offered Pol Lt Barichat Chaturonphan, the officer in charge of the case, 100,000 baht if he would drop the charges and let them go. Pol Lt Barichat refused. Yabock then called his brother, Samaan, who came to the police station and offered Pol Maj Prakarn 80,000 baht if he would order the charges dropped. Police charged all three men with attempting to bribe officers.
