Thai cops: M’sian brains behind drug smuggling attempts

BANGKOK: The attempt to smuggle a large amount of drugs into Malaysia two weeks ago was masterminded by three Malaysian men, Thai authorities said.

The men were said to have planned the smuggling of 226kg of methampetamine and 8kg of heroin, using a group of 21 “drug mules” or couriers.

Thai police said the three were syndicate masterminds.

“Only known as ‘K’, ‘L’ and ‘C’, they managed to get away at the very last minute,” said Col Puttidej Bunkrapue from the Thailand Railway Police.

"We have all the evidence of their activities, including footage from the closed-circuit TV cameras at the hotel where they stayed and the cars they rented," he said.

Thai police believed the value of the drugs would be about RM400mil on the black market in Europe.

Puttidej said that based on information from the National Immigration Department, the masterminds had entered Thailand more than 30 times, showing they were experienced in running the illegal business.

The Thailand Railway Police was the main agency in the investigation because the offence was committed on a train route.

It was also responsible for the arrest of the 21 Malaysian drug mules.

Puttidej said Thai police handed information on the masterminds to Bukit Aman to help track them down.

He said the men were believed to have gone to Chiang Mai much earlier to buy the drugs.

Unlike the drug mules who arrived there by train from Bangkok, the three had travelled to the north Thailand resort city on a direct flight from Kuala Lumpur.

Once the deal in Chiang Mai was done, the men boarded a flight to Hatyai in southern Thailand and waited for the supply to be transported by the drug mules via rail.

Puttidej said Thai police believed they had bought the drugs from a factory hidden in the jungles of Myanmar, close to the border of north Thailand.

This area is controlled by a powerful drug syndicate.

At the Chiang Mai train station, the drugs were put into tens of backpacks which would be carried by the drug mules on the 12-hour trip to the Hualamphong railway station in Bangkok.

They all arrived in Bangkok on March 22 and continued the train trip to Hatyai on March 23, in an attempt to cross the border in north Malaysia.

Puttidej said the masterminds were already waiting in Hatyai with several cars for the subsequent phase of their plan to smuggle the drugs into Malaysia, this time using a land route.

Their plan had been detected by Thai police which set up an ambush and arrested 15 of the drug mules at the Hua Hin, Ratchaburi and Prachuabkirikan railway stations.

The other six were nabbed in a van in Phattalung en route to the Malaysian border, after leaving their drug supplies at the Chumphon railway station in Surat Thani.

“The masterminds somehow knew their plan had failed and escaped by re-entering Malaysia,” said Puttidej. -— Bernama