Police tracing the heroin carried to Australia by a Thai Airways air hostess believe it was produced in Myanmar and smuggled into northern Thailand through Laos.
Pol Maj Gen Somboon Thiankhao, deputy chief of the Narcotics Suppression Bureau (NSB), said on Sunday the heroin smuggled by the 26-year-old woman, identified only as Ms Meena, was produced by a syndicate in Myanmar. It entered Thailand through Chiang Kham district in northern Phayao province, which borders Laos.
Chiang Kham has been under close watch as it is seen as a transit point for illicit drugs, he said. The drugs entered Thailand through northern Laos instead of directly from Myanmar to avoid the strict Thai border inspection.
Recent raids in Chiang Kham resulting in the seizure of millions of methamphetamine pills confirmed this, he said. From there the drugs were moved through Thailand, with most going overseas, Pol Maj Gen Somboon said.
Uthai Khanapiwat has admitted delivering the parcel containing the elephant tote bags with the concealed heroin to Ms Meena at her condominium in Bang Na district on June 22. He told police he picked up that and other parcels in Chiang Kham on June 20.
Mr Uthai was arrested in Phitsanulok on Friday. He was allegedly on the run. He also allegedly told police he had previously made three similar deliveries.
The NSB deputy chief said Mr Uthai's behaviour made police suspicious of the details he gave in his statement made during interrogation. He had quickly changed his phone and tried to dump the other drugs in his possession after Ms Meena was arrested at Melbourne Airport on June 25.
The parcels he brought from Phayao were kept at his apartment in Ayutthaya. On June 22, he hired Atircah Supian to drive him to Ms Meena's Bangkok condo to deliver the parcel intended for her.
A search at his apartment on Saturday found traces of heroin in tote bags. Other bags had been dumped on a roadside in Ayutthaya on Friday, after her arrest, as he hastily tried to destroy evidence, according to Pol Maj Gen Somboon.
Pol Lt Gen Theeradej Thamsuthee, deputy commander of Bangkok Metropolitan Police, said on Sunday the discarded bags were found when Mr Uthai and his friend showed investigators where he dumped them.
The investigation into the drug trafficking network is continuing, both in Thailand and in Australia.
