Cold pills scandal suspect sent from Myanmar for prosecution in Thailand

BANGKOK, July 27 (TNA) - A Thai man--who has been suspected of involving in a cold pills scandal in 2012--has been escorted back from Myanmar to be prosecuted in Thailand. The suspect, Somchai Rakyodying, who is under an arrest warrant issued by Chiang Mai's court in the Thai North for possessing an exceeding limited amount of pseudoephedrine with intent to sell without a permission, was escorted back on Saturday by officials from Thailand’s Office of the Narcotics Control Board and the Department of Special Investigation (DSI). The former member of a gang of illegal drug makers, who smuggled cold medicines containing pseudoephedrine from hospitals in Thailand and used them to produce methamphetamine, was arrested by Myanmar authorities at a hotel in Yangon. In 2012, Thai police searched his house in Chiang Mai province and found some 137,000 cold medicines and parcels containing other 10,000 cold pills from a hospital in Uttaradit province in the Lower Thai North. The DSI will seek a court order to jail him on July 29. Meanwhile, Thailand and Myanmar have agreed to increase bounty for each gang member of drug lord Lieutenant General Yi Se’s network to five million baht, from two million baht, to encourage authorities from both neighbouring countries to seize the criminal suspects. (TNA)