Senior police officer linked to Lao drug lord Xaysana
The Narcotic Suppression Bureau has been granted court approval to detain a senior highway police officer for allegedly colluding with his wife in running a drug operation, believed to be linked to Lao drug lord Xaysana Keopimpha’s network.
Yesterday’s detention of Pol Lt Col Thanakrit Nitsaphan is among subsequent operations following a drug crackdown earlier this month, including another separate raid on Thursday when police confiscated 600 million baht worth of crystal methamphetamine.
This prompted them to conduct raids in Chiang Mai’s three districts, also yesterday, but they failed to turn up anything illegal.
In the Thanakrit case, the NSB denied a bail request because he faces harsh punishments for his alleged wrongdoing as he is a state official, a police officer said.
The senior officer, who was attached to Highway Police Division 8, was accused of giving information to his wife Thip-arpha Raksasaeng to avoid anti-drug trafficking operations on certain roads.
His 31-year-old wife is suspected of working with the drug gang led by Xaysana, who was arrested in Thailand last year, police said.
Yesterday, 70 police and soldiers raided the house of a drug suspect in Chiang Mai after he had been nabbed for possessing 200 kilogrames of yaice on Thursday. His house is in Ban Doi Kham, a remote village in Hot district, one of three areas targeted by the officers.
The other two are Chiang Dao and Omkoi districts.
“But the main target is the house of a drug suspect” said Pol Col Phumin Poompanmuang, chief of the Crime Suppression Division’s 5th Sub-Division, referring to a 32-year-old man arrested in Chumphon on Thursday.
Ong-at Laowang’s pickup truck was intercepted by Crime Suppression Division and local police as it headed south along Asia Highway Route 41. A search found drugs hidden in the vehicle he was driving to a drug network in Surat Thani.
A further investigation found the suspect, who was hired to carry the drugs from Suphan Buri for 10,000 baht, is a resident of Ban Doi Kham, an ethnic hilltribe community, but his family told police the man had left the village a year ago to work in Chon Buri and denied knowledge of his drug activities, Pol Col Phumin said.
In other anti-drug operations, carried out almost simultaneously yesterday, police ended with more concrete outcomes. Police say they nabbed monks taking speed pills in Chai Nat as well as a local politician’s son who has been exposed as a drug gangster in Buri Ram.
In Chai Nat, police arrested two monks for taking speed pills after finding traces of drugs in their urine samples, following drug tests on 19 monks at Wat Pho Phanaram in Muang district. Phra Raksaphon and Phra Ke, were asked to leave the monkhood before being detained.