Phuket police bust island drug network

Police are also investigating the suspects bank accounts, Maj Gen Pornsak told a press conference at Thalang Police Station yesterday (Dec 1).

Present for the press conference were Provincial Police Deputy Chief Col Sermphan Sirikong, Thalang Police Chief Col Amnart Kalong and Thalang Police Deputy Chief Lt Col Krissana Channit.

Gen Pornsak explained that drug suspect Haris Pakdee, 40, a local resident of Tambon Thepkasattri, was arrested at a room at the Sunisa Resort at about 2pm on Sunday (Nov 29).

He was wanted for selling drugs to teenagers in Baan Prusomparn in Tambon Thepkrsattri and nearby areas.

In conducting the raid, police seized 6,996 ya bah pills, 1.736 kg of ya ice, a “Thai Pradit” homemade gun and six .38-calibre bullets.

Haris was charged with possession of a Category 1 drug with intent to sell, possession of an illegal firearm and ammunition.

From questioning Haris, police then arrested Ratnimon Jaikong at a room in Soi 7 Bangmalao in Saku. Seized as evidence in that raid were 16,315 ya bah pills and 1.88kg of ya ice.

Ms Ratnimon was charged with possession of a Category 1 drug with intent to sell, Gen Pornsak explained.

Further investigation led police to arrest Benjarong Thin-kohyao at a house in Moo 3 Pa Khlok, where he was found with 575.73g of ya ice, 770 ya bah pills and 36 bullets (size not specified), Gen Pornsak said.

Benjarong was charged with possession of a Category 1 drug with intent to sell and illegal possession of ammunition.

Further questioning of Benjarong led to the arrest of Panudet Karim at a house in Moo 6 Pa Khlok, Gen Pornsak added.

In that raid police seized 51.5g of ya ice, 400 ya bah pills and a .38-calibre firearm with 12 bullets, he said.

Panudet was charged with possession of a Category 1 drug with intent to sell and possession of an illegal firearm and ammunition.

“From our investigation, we learned that Ms Ratnimon ​​would pick up the drugs in Bangkok and bring them back to Phuket by bus and hand them over to the drug network in Thalang,” Gen Pornsak said.

Gen Pornsak warned other criminals that police were working hard to crack down on drug networks on the island.

“Phuket Provincial Police are working continuously on preventive and clearance measures. The arrests in this drug case are important as the drugs were being smuggled onto Phuket by being hidden in luggage on a bus, out of sight of officials at the Phuket Check Point at Tha Chatchai and delivered to a drug network in Thalang – but police finally caught up with them,” he said.

Police were continuing their investigation into the drug network, Gen Pornsak added.

“Officers are also in the process of auditing the bank accounts for seizure,” he said.

“It is important to expand the investigation to discover all persons in the drug network so that ultimately all of them will be prosecuted,” he concluded.

@ Sandbar, of course sniff dogs are a good idea. But that means 'prevention', and such is what the high level influential manufactures/suppliers not want. The idea is to allow at the receiving end ( phuket) some drug catching by RTP, but don't disturb the rest of the stream. A constant scaling of catching/not catching.

Sniffer dogs at bus depots either Bangkok side or Phuket end might be a good idea?  

Kurt, I believe they climbed as far up that tree as they are going to go.... now it is all about negotiating the resale of the product back to those top dogs....

Great work of the law!  But the $1000 question is, at what level of the drug tree the investigations stops in order not to disturb the influential ( high ranking?) producers/investors of production lines?