Capt Ittikorn Pacharadej of Tourist Police Region 3, based in Phuket Town, led the raid, in Soi Farmkaithong, off Soi Palai near Phuket Zoo, yesterday afternoon (Mar 17).
Capt Ittikorn said the raid was organised after police received a tip-off that one of the houses was being used as a base for selling kratom to local youths.
Officers surrounded the house at about 2:30pm Capt Ittikorn explained.
“They saw teenagers continually coming in and out of the house,” he said.
The officers moved in and arrested Prasert Khunpatch, 42, originally from Phattalung, who was found with 13 bags of kratom leaves.
“Altogether, the bags contained around one kilogram of kratom,” Capt Ittikorn said
The officers raided another house nearby, where 300 bags containing an estimated 27kg of kratom were found hidden inside, Capt Ittikorn added.
“Prasert confessed that he rented the two houses to store kratom leaves and sold it to local teenagers. He had been doing this for about four months,” Capt Ittikorn explained.
“There were around 25 leaves in each bag, which he sold for B100,” he added.
Prasert was taken to Chalong Police Station and charged with possession of a Category 5 drug with intent to sell, Capt Ittikorn confirmed.
Police will con tinue their investigation and question Prasert about where he sourced the kratom leaves were from and his connections, Capt Ittikorn said.