Police and volunteers stationed at a checkpoint on Thepkrasattri Rd in Koh Kaew nabbed the first catch of the day at about 8:15am when two men on a motorbike, one of the men wearing a Grab delivery shirt, tried to pass.
Believing the men were acting suspiciously, the officers stopped and searched the motorbike, and found in the insulated food bag a plastic bag containing 1.4 kilogrammes of kratom leaves.
The officers arrested the driver Anwa Maimahad, 19, and his passenger Alongkorn Longhan, 26, who was carrying the food bag.
Both men were charged with illegal possession of a Category 5 drug.
At about 1:30pm today, officers stationed at a checkpoint on Chao Fa West Rd arrested Food Panda delivery driver Widsarut Sritham, 34, after they found a plastic bottle containing about 200ml of kratom juice inside his insulated food bag.
Widsarut was taken to Chalong Police Station where he, too, was charged with illegal possession of a Category 5 drug.
Phuket Provincial Police Commander Maj Gen Rungrote Thakurapunyasiri today announced that police had so far made arrests in 454 cases for breaches of the Emergency Decree at checkpoints across the island since Apr 3, when the national nighttime curfew from 10pm to 4am came into force.
Since then, officers at checkpoints had inspected 13,822 vehicles, he said.
Gen Rungrote gave a breakdown of the number of cases brought to prosecution by officers at the checkpoints as per police station as follows:
- Phuket City Police (Muang District) – 140 cases
- Thalang Police Station – 25 cases
- Kathu Police Station – 15 cases
- Patong Police Station – 110 cases
- Wichit Police Station – 48 cases
- Chalong Police Station – 39 cases
- Karon Police Station – 32 cases
- Cherng Talay Police Station – 15 cases
- Tha Chatchai Police Station – 12 cases
- Sakhu Police Station – 11 cases
- Kamala Police Station – 7 cases
Prosecutions in all cases were quickly presented to the court, with the offenders each fined B5,000 and sentenced to 15 days’ imprisonment, and placed on two years’ probation, Gen Rungrote said.