PHRAE: A former police officer who had earlier served seven years behind bars for drug smuggling is back in custody after 200,000 speed pills were found hidden in his pickup truck.
Local police officers manning a checkpoint in tambon Wiang Ta in Long district stopped the pickup around 10pm on Friday as the driver was acting suspiciously. The driver sped off and police gave chase before the pickup stopped about one kilometre away.
The pickup truck was loaded with papayas, some contained in fertiliser sacks. Police searched further and found four bundles containing 200,000 speed pills hidden in a yellow sack under the fruit.
Officers then arrested driver Khachen Duangdet, 48, a former police lieutenant-colonel.
Police extended the investigation and found the pickup belonged to a woman close to the former officer, said Pol Col Somsak Arkornsakul, chief of the Wiang Ta police station.
The officers on Saturday seized two pickup trucks from the woman at her house in Wiang Ta village in Long district pending further investigation to find whether the vehicles had been acquired from the sale of illicit drugs.
The woman, whose name was not revealed, was called in for questioning and asked to produce documents related to the acquisition of the vehicles.
Investigators said that Khachen had earlier delivered speed pills to a drug dealer in Ayutthaya. The suspect was paid 600,000 baht for each delivery, said the Wiang Ta police chief.
The accused was making a second delivery of 200,000 speed pills when he was caught. He was using a less-travelled road in Long district in order to avoid a main route in Den Chai district where there were many police checkpoints.
Police said Khachen had been dismissed from the force after an earlier drug arrest. He had been jailed for seven years and was released two years ago.
