Five tonnes of cannabis buds seized in Bangkok

Thai police have arrested four Myanmar workers and their Vietnamese boss and seized five tonnes of cannabis buds at a rented house in Bangkok, and caught five Thais on a central plains highway with 284 kilogrammes of crystal meth.

Immigration police chief Pol Lt Gen Noppasilp Poonsawat said police raided a luxury house on Khu Bon 27 Road in Bang Khen district, Bangkok, on Monday.

They arrested a Vietnamese man and four Myanmar employees after finding five tonnes of cannabis buds on the premises. The Myanmar workers were paid 200 to 300 baht a day to sort and pack the buds, he said.

The police raid followed a year-long investigation after neighbours complained about a strong cannabis smell emanating from the house. Pol Lt Gen Noppasilp said the house had a ventilator outlet that discharged the cannabis smell into the surrounding space.

He said there was also a Thai tenant in the house.

On-anong Srisuwan, a legal affairs official of the Department of Thai Traditional and Alternative Medicine, said the group had a licence for cannabis bud processing in Nong Bua Lam Phu province, but their business in Bangkok was illegal and they were liable to a maximum penalty of a year in prison and/or fine of 20,000 baht.

- Crystal methamphetamine -

On Sunday, police arrested five Thai men aged 21 to 44 years travelling in two vehicles on Highway 32 in Nakhon Sawan and Ayutthaya provinces.

Pol Lt Gen Naradet Thiprak, chief of Provincial Police Region 1, said two of the suspects were in a pickup stopped in Phayuha Khiri district of Nakhon Sawan with 284kg of crystal meth, or “ice”. The three other men were in the second vehicle, which was stopped in Maharat district of Ayutthaya. They were allegedly lookouts for the drug-carrying pickup.

Pol Lt Gen Naradet said the crystal meth was picked up in the lower northeastern province of Si Sa Ket, which borders Kampuchea, for delivery to dealers in the Central Plains.

Police examine bags of "ice" on the stopped pickup in Nakhon Sawan province on Sunday. (Police photo)