NAKHON RATCHASIMA: Police have seized assets worth over 50 million baht from a major drug network tied to a prison inmate following the arrests of eight gang members in two separate raids five years ago.
Officers from Provincial Police Region 3 and officials from the Anti-Money Laundering Office on Thursday seized three cars, one pickup truck, gold ornaments and three houses in Nakhon Ratchasima with a combined value of over 50 million baht.
Pol Lt Gen Damrongsak Kittiprapat, commander of Provincial Police Region 3, said the seizures were linked to the arrests of four drug suspects with 210,000 methamphetamine pills and 11kg of crystal methamphetamine in Ubon Ratchathani’s Khemmarat district on March 23, 2013.
The investigators found that Thanupong Thamma-an and the three other suspects had been hired by a drug network run by a prison inmate, Pol Lt Gen Damrongsak said.
The extended investigation then led to the arrests of a woman, Nawaporn Chanthararasamee, and three other accomplices. Nawaporn was tasked with managing the assets acquired from the drug trade for the network.
The Ubon Ratchathani provincial court sentenced Nawaporn to six years in jail and the three others to 4 years in jail each for colluding to launder money earned from the illicit drug trade, the regional police chief said.
