Deadly ketamine cocktail laced with 3 other drugs
Taiwan, China gangs re-exporting drug
A physician at the Police General Hospital who conducted a test on two samples of seized “powdered milk ketamine”, found near dead victims yesterday, revealed that the tests detected the presence of four substances — ketamine, heroin, ecstasy and a sleeping pill called diazepam.
Pol Maj Gen Thanit Jirananthawat said the combined effects of the various drugs, which together harm human organs, can easily be fatal.
Meanwhile, Metropolitan Police Bureau chief Phukphong Phongpetra yesterday gave an update regarding investigations into the ketamine that has so far killed seven people.
Pol Lt Gen Phukphong said that six of them were believed to have died immediately after taking the drug.
These cases are being handled by Wat Phrayakrai police station.
The seventh case is being investigated by police at Suttisarn station.
According to the initial autopsies, the victims died of heart and respiratory failure.
However King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital and Ramathibodi
Hospital will investigate this further. The cocktails are usually concocted to enhance the effects of ketamine, Pol Lt Gen Phukphong said.
He said the source of this ketamine cocktail has not yet been found. All that is known is that it was sold in the area under Wat Phrayakrai police station and that some information regarding dealers has been reported. Police are currently hunting for them.
A young woman has been arrested in Bangkok’s Sai Mai area and a quantity of the ketamine cocktail known as “k-powdered milk” has been seized.
Sirikarn Chuekhetkram, 23, was taken into custody in front of a house in Jitpawan community in the Sai Mai area yesterday after police acted on a tip-off by an informant alleging she sold the drug cocktail, known as “k-nom pong” by Thai users.
The police team, led by Metropolitan Police Division 2 chief Pol Col Saksit Meesawat, searched the woman and found three small plastic bags containing the drug in her pockets.
She allegedly confessed there were three more packets of the same drug in her bedroom. She took them there and police found the packets.
Ms Sirikarn told police the drug mixture contained ketamine and a sleeping pill called rosé (ramelteon, commonly prescribed under the brand name Rozerem).
Police claim Ms Sirikarn said she bought the drugs from a friend in Pathum Thani province’s Lam Luk Ka district for 470 baht a gramme and sold them on Facebook for 600 baht a gramme.
Her regular customers were allegedly young people in the Sai Mai area.
Police said she also admitted to having sold the drugs over a long period before being caught.
Ms Sirikarn was initially charged with illegal possession of Category 2 drugs with intent to sell. She was taken to Sai Mai police station for legal action.
On Monday, national police chief Pol
Gen Suwat Jangyodsuk ordered a crackdown on the new illegal drug cocktail following the spate of deaths.
Pol Lt Gen Phukphong said apart from the arrest of Ms Sirikarn, an investigation is underway to find others who could have been behind the sale of the ketamine cocktail.
A police source said yesterday that the Southern Bangkok Criminal Court has approved warrants to arrest four people allegedly involved in the selling of the ketamine cocktail at night entertainment spots in Bangkok.
The source also said Pol Lt Gen Phukphong has ordered police investigators to find more victims who took the ketamine cocktail and it has found that another 11 people were harmed by the drug; three were hospitalised, eight were taken to hospital emergency rooms and had to be examined by doctors.
Gangs in Taiwan, China and Thailand have colluded to smuggle ketamine into Thailand for re-export to lucrative markets in Malaysia and Hong Kong, a source in the Office of the Narcotics Control Board (ONCB) has revealed.
The revelation was made after “powdered milk ketamine”, a new variant of the drug, was found to have killed seven people in Bangkok this week.
The Royal Thai Police said it could not yet confirm whether the substance, which looks like powdered milk, was a combination of ketamine and sleeping pills as speculated. Results of the autopsies on the victims have yet to be released.
According to an expert, the “powdered milk ketamine” was mainly composed of four substances — ketamine, heroin, ice and a sleeping pill called “Rosé” (ramelteon, commonly prescribed under the brand name Rozerem). Three other substances found were sodium pentothai, pencuronium bromide and potassium chloride, which are used to execute prisoners, according to the academic.
Yesterday, the ONCB source said drug trafficking networks in Taiwan and China have worked with Thai drug gangs to smuggle ketamine into Thailand before re-exporting it mainly to Malaysia and Hong Kong where the drug is sold at high prices.
Some of the re-exported drug was also sold to customers back in Taiwan. Locally, the abuse of ketamine is spreading in provinces with a large number of night spots, said the source.
Dealers offer large discounts on ketamine to lure potential customers. Liquid ketamine is retailed for between 400-500 baht a bottle and the crystal form of the drug for between 200500 baht per small spoon. Ketamine typically changes hands for 350,000370,000 baht per kilogramme.
The source said drug enforcement
agencies in countries along the Mekong River have exchanged information on the ketamine trade and smuggling. They found the production bases are scattered in India, China and Myanmar.
In 2018, China seized more than
5.7 tonnes of ketamine heading to this country. Some of it was packed in tea sachets and smuggled along with ya ice into Thailand through border areas in Chiang Dao, Mae Ai and Fang districts of Chiang Mai as well as through the the
northeastern provinces of Bung Kan, Nakhon Phanom and Nong Khai.
The largest haul of ketamine confiscated by law enforcement authorities weighed up to 800 kilogrammes, according to the ONCB source.