Thai police seize over Bt366m drugs

BANGKOK, March 22 (TNA) - Thai police on Thursday seized 1.02 million methamphetamine pills, worth over 366 million baht, smuggled from neighboring Myanmar. Thai Deputy Prime Minister Chalerm Yubamrung, who oversees national security, and National Police Chief Police General Priewpan Damapong then held a press conference in Bangkok on the seizure of the large lot of methamphetamine pills and the arrest of a suspected trafficker, Pathomthat Jiraratanawong. The arrested suspect identified the head of his drug ring as Supawat Khonthong, who reportedly ordered the narcotics from Myanmar, and told the police that the ordered drugs were transported from the Thai North and stored at a house in Lam Luk Ka district of Bangkok's suburban Pathum Thani province and earnings from the illicit business were laundered through a luxurious car sale business. Arrest warrants were earlier issued by Thai police against the already-apprehended suspect and his subordinates who were hired to transport illicit drugs. Besides, the Thai police are tracing their accomplices in Kamphaeng Phet and Phitsanulok provinces in the Lower Thai North. Meanwhile, Defence Ministry spokesman Colonel Thanathip Sawangsaeng said that Thai Defence Minister Air Chief Marshal Sukumpol Suwanatat has ordered more intensified border patrols to block narcotics from being smuggled onto the Thai soil, particularly during the forthcoming Songkran Festival next month, and the prevention of any involvement in narcotics among Thai military officers and their families. (TNA)