New Year bust nets 300 ya bah pills

PHUKET: Provincial authorities working with a Border Patrol Police drug-suppression unit from Phang Nga on New Year’s Day arrested a man for possession of 300 ya bah (methamphetamine) pills with intent to sell.

Wisut Romin, deputy chief of the Phuket Provincial Special Operations Unit, identified the suspect as Kittiphong “Phong” Leamsai, 41.

After a period of surveillance, officers from the drug-suppression unit of Border Patrol Police Unit 425, based in Phang Nga’s Takuapa district, arranged to buy 100 ya bah pills from Phong at 30,000 baht.

Phong was arrested as soon as the transaction was completed at 11 am. A search of his room at Panthep Condo Town on Mae Luan Rd, Phuket City, uncovered 200 more ya bah pills in a plastic bag hidden in a closet. All the pills were reddish-orange in color and impressed with the letters “WY”, said K. Wisut.

During questioning, Phong told officials that he had been smuggling the narcotics to Phuket from Chiang Rai for about two years, he added.

He bought the drugs from a Burmese man identified only as “Sua”, then flew back with a large quantity of pills concealed in his anus to avoid detection by x-ray machines at Phuket International Airport, explained K. Wisut.

Several air-ticket receipts for journeys from Phuket to Chiang Rai via Bangkok were seized as evidence, along with a mobile phone and a list of customers.

K. Wisut said the method used by the suspect was only one of many used to smuggle ya bah onto the island.

The suspect is being held at Phuket Provincial Prison, he added.