CHIANG MAI: A police a raid on a warehouse in Saraphi district found 50 kilogrammes of ketamine ready to be smuggled to Taiwan inside sound system loudspeakers.
Four suspects, two Thais and two Taiwanese men, were subsequently arrested.
Yangchinkhal, 34, Kaoweichih, 32, both Taiwanese nationals, and Phusing Phumrungwikrai of Chiang Mai’s Saraphi district and Ms Siriporn Siripraiwong, of Chiang Mai Muang district, were charged with colluding in having an illicit category 2 drug in their possession with intent to sell, police told a media briefing on Friday.
The arrests followed a police investigation that determined Thai and Taiwanese traffickers were smuggling drugs hidden in cosmetic products and electrical appliances to Taiwan.
Local police, narcotics suppression officers and soldiers then kept a close watch on suspect people.
On May 1, they saw a woman, identified later as Ms Siriporn, drive a car to a warehouse in Saraphi district. The woman took a bag from the vehicle into the warehouse. A man, identified later as Phumsing, stood guard in front of the warehouse. A short time after, two Taiwanese men entered the warehouse, and later left.
On May 2, officers obtained a warrant from the Chiang Mai Provincial Court to search the warehouse, and found 50kg of packaged ketamine inside, police said.
The two Taiwanese suspects were arrested at the warehouse. The two Thai accomplices were caught separately in Muang district.
The Taiwanese men allegedly admitted via an interpreter that the drugs belonged to them and said they would have been concealed inside loudspeakers before being delivered to a cargo handling firm for shipment to Taiwan.
The four suspects and the seized drugs were handed over to interrogators at the Narcotics Suppression Division 3 for legal action.
Pol Lt Gen Chinnaphat Sarasin, chief of the Narcotics Suppression Bureau, Pol Lt Gen Montri Samboonyanond, chief of the Provincial Police Region 5, Lt Gen Chalonghcai Chayakham, commander of the 3rd Army, and Bancha Tosamai, director of the Office of the Narcotics Control Board’s Narcotics Law Enforcement Bureau all fronted the news conference.
