Another Phuket meth bust

There’s been another meth bust in Phuket’s main city district. Border Patrol Police reported arresting 32 year old Eakksachai ‘Gueng’ Paesophon on Monday, on a road in the Wichit Sub-district. The police seized 2,770 meth pills from Gueng, along with roughly 1,293 grammes of crystal meth.

Gueng is allegedly part of a larger drug network, which includes dealers in other provinces. He admitted to police that he was paid 20,000 baht every time he transported drugs and that he has done so three times. Gueng now faces charges of illegal possession of Category 1 Drugs with intent to sell.

Phuket has had a few meth busts in the past month. Last month, police arrested another suspect in Wichit and another man in the Chalong sub-district. Police seized 1,779 meth pills from one man, as well as about 30 grammes of crystal methamphetamine while they seized 1,784 meth pills from another man.

Meth continues to be the most popular, cheap, and readily available illicit narcotic in Thailand and all of Southeast Asia, where the synthetic drug trade is booming.

Last year alone, more than one billion meth pills were seized in east and Southeast Asia, according to a report released by the United Nations. It is considered the “drug of greatest concern” in the region by the UN.

In April, Thai police arrested more than 120,000 drug suspects in the past six months. They had seized more than 2.4 billion baht in assets and confiscated more than 260 million pills of illegal substances, including meth.

SOURCE: The Phuket Express