Bt100m assets seized from int'l drug network in Thailand's far South

NARATHIWAT, March 10 (TNA) - Security authorities have seized assets, totally worth 100 million baht, from alleged two members of a transnational drug network in Thailand’s southernmost Narathiwat province. Narathiwat police chief Police Major General Chot Chawanwiwat and chief of Internal Security Operations Command Region 4’s special task forces Colonel Jatuporn Kalumpasut told a joint press conference Saturday that officials from the Bangkok-based Anti-Money Laundering Office, as well as local police and soldiers, warranted by the martial law imposed in the province, conducted searches at two local gold shops, after a tip-off over their alleged money-laundering activities in relation with a suspected international drug dealer who was earlier arrested by local authorities. Police Major General Chot said that the search in the first gold shop in Su-nagai Padi district’s Paluru sub-district led to the seizure of all gold ornament worth 100 million baht, and that at the second gold shop in Su-ngai Kolok district, the authorities seized additional two million baht cash, gold ornament and 34 bank account books, belonged to the owner of the shop. The owners of the two gold shops were also taken for further questioning on the sources of their assets. According to the Narathiwat police chief, legal action would be taken against the owners of the two gold shops if they failed to clarify to the police on the origins of the seized assets. (TNA)