Phuket police yesterday (April 23) announced their latest drug suppression progress, credited to two separate teams between the hours of 4.30pm and 11pm the previous evening.
The initial arrest, of 20-year-old Panupong Chuchaat, was executed by a mixed task force comprising Thalang police officers and civil defence volunteers from the district’s Stability Division, headed by district admin clerks (palad) Seereepong Leeprasit and Danai Jaikaeng.
Authorities were tipped off that Panupong had been selling small baggies of marijuana to local teens and proceeded to stage a sting operation by luring the suspected dealer with a B200 purchase at the young man’s house in Thepkrasatri’s Moo 2.
At the suspect’s house, officers made an initial seizure of two small baggies of weed, and proceeded to search the house, in which they found and seized 18 more baggies of marijuana, all in reported to weigh 30.6 grammes.
Mr Panupong was booked and charged with possession of a Category 5 drug with intent to sell.
Authorities then expanded their net, bringing their investigation further up the supply line, and collaborating with counterparts in Phuket’s Muang District, who organized a task force led by Phuket Muang District Chief Suphot Chanakit, defence clerks Wiratdet Boonreuankhao and
Somsak Saengkaew, along with district admin clerk and chief of the district’s stability division, Mr Samran Yukhunthorn.
The task force set up a sting op in the parking lot of the main Super Cheap store in Rassada, where they seized half a kilo of bricked Thai weed from 24-year-old Nitti Namkul. A subsequent search of Mr Nitt’s residence in Rassada’s Moo 1 uncovered an additional kilo of bricked weed, bringing the reported seizure up to 1.56 kilos.
Authorities didn’t end their investigation there, however, and proceeded to arrest 50-year-old Noom Toom-ong with 9.66 grammes of crystal meth stashed at a bus garage at Laem Hin in Koh Kaew sub district.
Mr Nitti was charged with possession of a Category 5 drug (dried, compacted marijuana) with intent to sell, while Mr Noom was charged for possession of a Category 1 drug (crystal meth) with intent to sell.