The arrests were made in four separate raids conducted by police in Chalong and Phuket Town along with officers from the Phuket Centre for Drug Prevention and Suppression and other law-enforcement support agencies, including Civil Defence Volunteers.
The suspects were found with three bags containing a total of 2.91 grams of ya ice, and drug-taking paraphernalia.
All three were charged with possession of a Category 1 drug with intent to sell. All three confessed to the charge, said police.
At around 5am, officers arrested Tinapat Rakroo, 20, from Phuket, at a hotel in Chalong where he was found in possession of one bag containing 1.1g of ya ice.
Tinapat was charged with possession of a Category 1 drug with intent to sell, and he confessed to the charge, said police.
Then at about 6am, officers arrested Ekasit Khongsamut, 21, from Phuket, at an address in Rawai, where he was found in possession of nine plastic bags containing 16.93g of ya ice and two bags containing a total of 536 tablets of orange-coloured ya bah pills embossed with the letters “WY”.
Ekasit was charged with possession of a Category 1 drug with intent to sell, to which he confessed, said police.
The last raid came at 8:30am yesterday, when officers arrested Pawana Prateep Na Thalang, 22, of Rawai, after she was found in possession of an assortment of small plastic bags containing a variety of amounts of ya ice, from 1.4g to 13.5g to 85.7g and 100.1g.
But the bumper “ice pack” was 1.05kg of ya ice in sealed small packets that were all packed inside one large parcel wrapped and sealed as a pack of “Guanyinwang” brand green tea bags.
Worse for Pawana was that police also found her in possession of 15,452 ya bah pills, again in a variety of packages, but namely eight large bricks wrapped and sealed with “999” brand logo on top.
Pawana was charged with possession of a Category 1 drug with intent to sell, to which she confessed, said police.
In carrying out the raids, officers seized a total of 1.27kg of ya ice, 15,988 ya bah pills, three sets of digital scales, four ya ice consumption devices, B24,200 in cash, just one OPPO mobile phone, said police.
The raids yesterday follow national police chief Pol Gen Chakthip Chaijinda earlier this month calling for changes in strategies in anti-drug operations as he said he was not satisfied with the outcome of operations used to tackle the problem because only lower-level drug suspects were arrested last year despite a huge spike in the size of drug seizures. (See story here.)
* Following conflicting reports of the drugs amounts seized, The Phuket News this afternoon confirmed all amounts reported above with Sompon Sripanrod of the Phuket Provincial Operation Centre for Combating Drugs (PPOCCD) operating under direct order of the National Command Centre for Combating Drugs (NCCD).