Nigerian ‘pill pushers’ sent mules abroad
Immigration police arrested three Nigerians on suspicion of peddling narcotics and seized 2,750 ecstasy pills and other illicit drugs yesterday.
Police held a media briefing t o announce the arrests at the Immigration Bureau in Sathon district. Deputy national police chief Srivara Ransibrahmanakul was also present.
The three suspects were identified as Justin Chiedozie Uzukwu, 30, Declan Kaodichi Uzukwu, 32, and Okwor Stephen Onyema, 35. They were arrested at a house in tambon Bangkraso in Nonthaburi’s Muang district.
Police also confiscated 2,750 ecstasy pills, eight grammes of cocaine, 8g of marijuana, a car, some mobile phones, several passports and a mail box sent from Belgium.
Pol Lt Gen Sutthipong Wongpin, the commissioner of the Immigration Bureau, said the arrests followed up on an earlier case in which seven Thai women were apprehended by Japanese authorities for smuggling drugs into Japan.
Police found that a gang of Nigerians working with a Thai woman were behind the operation. They supplied the drugs and hired the women to smuggle them into Japan, Pol Lt Gen Sutthipong said.
He said police investigations found the suspects had ordered ecstasy from Belgium. The pills were sent in parcels addressed to a Thai woman.
They can fetch 500 baht each, Pol Lt Gen Sutthipong said, adding the pills bear an insignia resembling a mobile phone SIM card.
The drugs have now been sent to the Office of the Narcotics Control Board for examination and narcotics suppression police have been asked to expand their investigation to check for more suspects, Pol Lt Gen Sutthipong said.
The three men have been charged with possession of drugs for sale and overstaying their visas, Pol Lt Gen Sutthipong said.