DRUGS / 104kg heroin bust in Phuket

Written by Writer on Tuesday, November 11th, 2008

DRUGS / 104kg heroin bust in Phuket

WASSAYOS NGAMKHAM

A Thai man and a Taiwanese national were arrested after police found 104 kilogrammes of heroin at a house in Phuket.

Pongthat Pongthathirasakul, 29, and a Taiwanese man, Kua Tor Tsai, 42, were apprehended at the Phuket City Home housing estate in Muang district on Sunday.

Police said the heroin was hidden in a concealed pit under the kitchen floor.

The drugs, smuggled from the North, were destined for the United States via Taiwan.

The raid followed a tip-off from the US Drug Enforcement Administration that a Thai-Taiwanese gang planned to smuggle a large shipment of heroin out of the country, national deputy police chief Pol Gen Priewphan Damapong said yesterday.

Police said the seized heroin was worth about 100 million baht in Thailand, but its street value in the US would be 10 times as much.

Warrants for the arrest of six more gang members, including four Thais - Sarayuth Ketsarinniras, Sathit Paiboon-issarakul, Mana Chaidee, Sumit Thanapiromkul - and two Taiwanese men have been obtained by police.

Highway police yesterday arrested a motorist and seized 167kg of marijuana, worth about 1.3 million baht, in Nakhon Ratchasima province.

Thanachai Thongthaen, 29, was stopped at a police checkpoint in Dan Khun Thot district. Compressed bars of marijuana were found in his car.

Bangkok Post
Tuesday November 11, 2008