123 kilograms of marijuana seized at border

Police found big bags containing 123 kilograms of compressed marijuana at a resort hotel in the Tha Uthen district of the northeastern province of Nakhon Phanom. The guests believed to have brought the contraband have fled.

Tha Uthen’s district chief said on Saturday that local residents alerted authorities after seeing a few men check into at the hotel on Friday night with the suspicious bags. The men subsequently left but returned to the hotel several times. Police did not reveal their names.

When police reached the hotel, the suspects had left. Three large black bags containing 123 bars of marijuana, weighing a kilogram each, were found in their room. Police estimated their value at about 2 million baht.

One of the suspects wrote only a nickname in the registration book of the hotel according to police.

The district chief said that the suspects might have been smugglers who brought the marijuana from neighbouring Laos, planning to keep it at the hotel before shipping it.

SOURCE: bangkokpost.com