Thai authorities seize assets worth millions from ‘Mr T’

BANGKOK: Thai authorities have seized various assets worth millions of Thai Baht held by ‘Mr T’ or the ‘ Malaysian Iceman’, who acted as a key middleman for international drug syndicates.

According to a source, the authorities not only made the move of confiscating assets under ‘Mr T’s’ name, but they also seized assets held under his Thai wife and son’s names.

“Their assets ( held by Mr T, his Thai wife and son) run into millions of Thai Baht, with most of the assets located in Hatyai and other southern Thai provinces,” he told Bernama recently about the Malaysian man who was keenly sought after by the Thai drug enforcement authorities before his arrest recently.

The Thai authorities suspected that ‘ Mr T’ was the key middleman who brokered deals and facilitated the smuggling of hundreds of kilogrammes of drugs into Malaysia to be then re- exported to other countries.

The Johor-born man was nabbed at Hatyai Airport last April following intense surveillance after a trip to northern Thailand, which the authorities alleged was to negotiate for another consignment of drugs for the international syndicates.

The Thai authorities said two Malaysian men who were arrested in Sadao in March last year with 282 kg of ‘Ice’ told them during interrogation that the drugs they carried belonged to ‘Mr T’.

The two Malaysian drug couriers also claimed that ‘ Mr T’ had facilitated several other successful drug smuggling attempts into Malaysia, each over 100 kg in consignment.

Meanwhile, according to the source, the assets seized under ‘ Mr T’s’ name include cash in various currencies from Thai Baht, Malaysian Ringgit, Hong Kong Dollar, Korean Won, Indonesian Rupiah, Swiss Franc to US Dollar.

The authorities also seized several local bank accounts held by the Malaysian man, who is currently under remand in Bangkok prison while the authorities complete their investigation into his alleged crime.

Under Thai law, a suspect can be held under remand for up to 84 days.

The source said, among the assets seized which were held under “Mr T’s” wife and his son were cars and motorbikes, deposits in local banks, lottery bonds, condominium unit, plots of land and title deeds.

He declined to give the exact total amount of the assets seized from the three, citing ongoing investigation.

The source also said that ‘ Mr T’ denied all the allegations levelled against him throughout the investigation but the authorities were confident of their watertight case against him as the suspect had been on their radar for a long time.

More suspects are expected to be hauled up to facilitate the investigation. — Bernama