drug trafficking
- Crime News
Clean getaway foiled: Man ‘purifies’ methamphetamine pills smuggling attempt into Thailand
Customs officials in Nong Khai apprehended a man who was smuggling nearly 60,000 methamphetamine pills into Thailand, cleverly hidden inside an air purifier. The suspect claimed to be unaware of the illicit contents, stating he was merely hired to transport the goods from Laos to Udon Thani province in Thailand. The arrest took place at the first Thai-Lao Friendship Bridge…
- Crime News
Hong Kong’s electric surprise: US$1.5 million hidden cocaine stash rolls in an electric wheelchair
Hong Kong customs officials discovered an estimated US$1.5 million (54 million baht) worth of concealed cocaine stash inside an electric wheelchair. The 11 kilogramme drug haul was found on a 51 year old man travelling from Saint Martin, a Mediterranean country, to Hong Kong via Paris, France. The discovery occurred on Saturday, October 14, during the man’s customs clearance at…
- Thailand News
Nigerian arrested in Bangkok for drug trafficking, used cookie box to hide cocaine
In a recent drug trafficking bust, Bangkok Metropolitan Police (BMP) apprehended a Nigerian man involved in the possession and sale of cocaine, following a tip-off about his activities in the Rama 9 area of the capital. The BMP apprehended the Nigerian man, Chiemela Solomon Onu, for possessing and selling cocaine. The arrest took place at a condominium in the Rama…
- Thailand News
Chiang Rai’s new college to tackle Mekong region drug trafficking
The International Narcotics Control College (INCC), a newly founded institution in Chiang Rai, Thailand, is set to provide specialised training for law enforcement agents and associated organisations, with the mission of curbing drug trafficking in the Mekong subregion. Nestled within the compound of the Hall of Opium, Thailand’s opium museum, in Chiang Saen district, the INCC is the first of…
- Thailand News
Two-year run ends: Swedish drug trafficker captured in Koh Samui
A 60 year old Swedish man on the run for two years to evade drug trafficking accusations and a visa overstay in Koh Samui, was apprehended and taken into custody by the Surat Thani Immigration Police. The Swedish man, Reno Penti Olavi Martin, was arrested yesterday at approximately 7pm, on the orders of the Chief of the Immigration Police, and the…
- Thailand News
Drug suspect’s escape attempt causes crash, leaving five injured in Chon Buri
A drug suspect fleeing from police caused a traffic accident that resulted in five injuries, including two police officers and a resident. Found in possession of 100 methamphetamine pills and two bags of crystal meth, the suspect was eventually apprehended. The incident occurred yesterday on the Chon Buri-Ban Bueng road. At 9.30pm, the Chon Buri City Police received a report…
- Crime News
Drug trafficking: Woman caught with 5 million baht worth of drugs disguised as a tourist
A woman from Phetchaburi, known as Ae Rai Rhon Khon, was apprehended today, while disguised as a tourist and transporting drugs in a passenger van. Authorities seized nearly 50,000 methamphetamine pills as she prepared to enter Kanchanaburi. The arrest followed a tip-off about a drug trafficking operation from a neighbouring country into Thailand. Ae Rai Rhon Khon was seen acting…
- Crime News
Bangkok man arrested amid drug trafficking and firearm charges
Officers from the Ratchaburi Police Station, including Police Lieutenant Wacharaphon Suwananuwong, Deputy Inspector Thanaphon Thanaphakorn, and Police Lieutenant Tawich Petchamphorn, recently apprehended a 32 year old man involved in drug trafficking. The arrest of the man, Sittichok, also known as Mayd, took place in his condominium room located in Pracha Uthit Soi 33, Bang Mod, Thung Khru, Bangkok. Sithadsion of…
- Thailand News
Drug trafficking ring spanning across Thailand busted by police
A police crackdown resulted in the arrest of seven individuals in connection to a drug trafficking ring spanning the length of Thailand. Police stated the organised criminals caught yesterday had a long-standing pattern of sustained violence, striking fear into local communities. The drug trafficking ring’s operations extended from Chiang Rai through Nakhon Si Thammarat and on to Trang. The arrests were…
- Thailand News
Pattaya drug bust: Thai police nab South Korean dealer, seize 17 million baht worth of drugs
Thai police arrested a South Korean drug dealer in Pattaya following the rounding up of 70 drug suspects and the seizure of drugs worth about 17 million baht. The Thai Immigration Bureau (TIMB) held a press conference at the Brighton Grand Hotel in Pattaya today, where they shared the details of the arrest. Officers emphasised that the successful capture of…
- Crime News
Couple arrested as major drug agents in Bangkok, dealer’s house reveals party drugs
Police in Thailand arrested a major drug trafficking agent and two of his subordinates, seizing 708 grams of crystal methamphetamine, 940 grams of ketamine, 285 ecstasy pills, and several bags of the party drug, Happy Water. The suspects, part of a larger drug network, targeted party-goers in Bangkok, Nonthaburi, and Chon Buri provinces. The operation was led by Pol.Maj.Gen. Nawin Sinthurat,…
- Crime News
Aussie man and Thai wife say politicians’ letter saved them from death penalty in Thailand
A free Aussie man and his Thai wife who spent four years in prison in Thailand for a crime they did not commit say that a 15-page letter from politicians in Australia is the reason they were spared the death penalty after being convicted of trafficking half a tonne of crystal meth in 2018. Luke Cook, his wife Kanyarat Wechapitak and…
- Thailand News
Nepali man caught smuggling 5.6 kilograms of hashish into Thailand
A Nepali man was arrested at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport yesterday after customs found 5.6 kilograms of hashish hidden in his luggage with an estimated value of 560,000 baht. At 6.45pm, airport customs officials inspected a suitcase belonging to a man flying in from Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu. As the unnamed Nepali national passed through with nothing to declare, customs…
- Crime News
Convicted South African drug trafficker writes letter from inside Thai prison
A 23 year old South African woman serving a long prison sentence for drug trafficking wrote an eloquent letter offering a glimpse into how it feels to be locked away in Thailand. Ashley Oosthuizen was found guilty of international drug trafficking after she signed for a package containing MDMA at the restaurant she worked at in Koh Samui, ‘Hot in…
- Crime News
Pakistani man caught smuggling 80,000 pills into Thailand
A Pakistani man was arrested at Bangkok Suvarnabhumi Airport on Friday after he attempted to smuggle a suitcase brimming with drugs from Pakistan into the Kingdom of Thailand. Airport security flagged down a suspicious suitcase from Karachi, Pakistan, found to contain a plethora of Type 2 and Type 4 psychotropic substances. In total, police at the airport seized 79,200 pills…
- World News
Thai army shoots dead 6 foreign ketamine traffickers
Thai paramilitary rangers shot dead six drug traffickers smuggling 300 kilograms of ketamine into Thailand in the forests of Chiang Mai province near the border of Myanmar at 3am today. In the dead of night in the dense jungle, Thai paramilitary rangers crossed paths with “foreign drug traffickers” in Mon Pin subdistrict in Chiang Mai’s Fang district. The rangers reported that…
- Crime News
Shots fired by Bangkok police in drugs bust car chase
Plainclothes police officers fired at a car they believed to be driven by a drug dealer who was attempting to flee. The suspect remains at large. The incident took place on Phetkasem Road on Friday evening, causing panic in the area. It is the latest skirmish in Thailand’s war on drugs, triggered by this month’s day car massacre in the…
- Crime News
Thai police seize drug kingpin’s luxury Bangkok house on Facebook Live
Thai police from the Office of the Narcotics Control Board (ONCB) went live on Facebook this morning to seize a 21 million baht luxury home in Bangkok’s Saphan Sung district. The house belonged to an alleged transnational drug trafficker and money launderer who police suspect has already fled Thailand. In August, police seized 945 kilograms of “Ice” (methamphetamine) hidden in…
- Crime News
Drug dealers use license plate flipper to trick police
Officers swooped and arrested a drug trafficking gang that managed to avoid capture for months by using a car license plate flipper to trick police. The Metropolitan Police Bureau in Bangkok held a press conference yesterday to reveal details of the license plate flipper scam and the arrest of a major drug trafficking gang in the central part of Thailand.…
- Crime News
Drug dealing police spy says he gets rewarded with drugs
A drug dealer revealed on a Channel 3 news programme that he has worked as a Thai police spy for 20 years and gets rewarded for each successful drug bust he’s involved in with a percentage of the haul to traffic and resell. The Channel 3 report on drugs in Thailand highlighted how some drug dealers and users successfully concealed…
- World News
Suspected Myanmar military businessman arrested in Thailand for drug trafficking
A Myanmar businessman, who is suspected of being linked to the country’s ruling military junta, has been arrested in Bangkok. According to Reuters, three unnamed sources supplied information about his connections to the junta, after police arrested him over drug trafficking. Thailand’s deputy police spokesperson Kissana Phathanacharoen, says they conducted an early morning raid in Bangkok last week, finding the…
- Crime News
US man arrested for trafficking fentanyl into Thailand
A man from the United States has been arrested for trafficking fentanyl – an opioid deadlier than heroin – and other illicit drugs into Thailand. Police also arrested a Thai woman in connection with the case. It is the first time Thailand has made arrests for fentanyl trafficking, according to the Office of the Narcotics Control Board (ONCB). In a…
- Thailand News
Joe Ferrari: From high profile police chief and luxury vehicle collector to a life in prison
Former Nakhon Sawan provincial police chief, Thitisan Utthanaphon, aka. Joe Ferrari, was in the media spotlight today after he was sentenced to a life in prison for the torture and murder of an alleged drug trafficker. The 41 year old, along with six of his colleagues, was caught torturing a man to death on a CCTV camera leaked on Thai…
- Crime News
Thai government winning war against drugs after seizing 5 billion baht haul from nation’s cartels
The Thai Minister of Justice yesterday revealed around 5 billion baht had been recovered from nationwide drug raids. Somsak Thepsutin disclosed to Thai media the government is winning the war against drugs, cracking down on illegal cartels, and expects to recoup 10 billion baht by the end of the year after seizing more than half of that amount from illegal…
- Crime News
Thailand’s Defence Ministry says Yakuza member is not former PM’s son
Thailand’s Defence Ministry is calling ‘fake news’ on rumours that a former PM’s son is part of a yakuza gang after he was arrested in the US this month on suspicion of trafficking in drugs and weapons. The gang members were arrested for trafficking heroin and methamphetamine while trying to acquire surface-to-air missiles for rebel groups in Myanmar and Sri Lanka,…
- World News
US arrests 3 Thais, yakuza chief for planning to supply missiles to Burmese rebels
US authorities revealed yesterday that they have arrested three Thai men and a Japanese yakuza organised crime leader in New York City on April 4 – 5. The men are accused of trafficking heroin and methamphetamine, as well as attempting to acquire surface-to-air missiles for rebel groups in Myanmar and Sri Lanka. Takeshi Ebizawa, Sompak Raksaranee, Somphop Sigsiri and Suksan…
- Crime News
Police arrest alleged kingpin of drug network in Northern Thailand
Police arrested an alleged kingpin of a drug network in Northern Thailand known as “Polly.” Yesterday’s arrest follows a drug seizure of 2.3 million methamphetamine pills, or “yaba,” which means “crazy drug,” in the Phrae province back in January. 44 year old Amnatsin Jansuk, also known as “Ek Samrong,” was arrested in Samut Prakan, just southeast of Bangkok. He was…
- Crime News
Family works to appeal South African’s sentencing in Koh Samui drug trafficking case
The family of the young South African woman incarcerated at Thai prison for accepting a package of drugs have been working on an appeal. 22 year old Ashley Oosthuizen was sentenced to life in prison after she accepted a package of MDMA at the Koh Samui restaurant Hot in the Biscuit in late-2020. Her mother, Lynn Blignaut, told The Thaiger…
- Crime News
193 kg of crystal meth found in Australia-routed punching bags
Drug traffickers attempted to ship about 1.2 billion baht worth of crystal meth out of Thailand and into Australia, but customs officials beat them to the punch, as it were. Authorities at the customs office seized a gigantic payload of more than 193 kilogrammes of crystal meth that was being smuggled out of Thailand stuffed inside punching bags that boxers…
- Crime News
Majority believe convicted criminals shouldn’t get a Royal pardon
In the wake of Minister of Justice Somsak Thepsuthin initiating a Royal pardon for many people convicted of corruption, drug trafficking, and other serious crimes, the National Institute of Development Administration polled 1,317 people and found overwhelming opposition to the proposed pardon. The NIDA poll was done by phone between December 13 and December 15 and respondents from around the…
