Village head held as police seize 480 kg of cannabis in Mukdahan
Border patrol police arrested a village head, his assistant and a third man on the Mekong bank in Mukdahan with 480 kg of compressed marijuana smuggled from Laos. The seizure was announced at a Border Patrol Police Company 235 briefing on 16 May 2020.
🇹🇭 Bank of the Mekong River, Wan Yai district, Mukdahan province · Thailand
Border Patrol Police Company 235 commander Pol Col Sippanan Sornkhunkaew told a media briefing on Saturday 16 May 2020 that a village head and two accomplices had been arrested with 480 kg of compressed marijuana, worth at least 10 million baht, on the bank of the Mekong River in Mukdahan province.[1][2]The three men were Phuthorn Wongwai, 57, head of village Moo 11 in tambon Pong Kham of Wan Yai district, his assistant Yutthana Wongwai, 41, and Phoonsak Eksaphang, 34.[1][2]
Officers spotted the men as they were about to move the drugs, smuggled across the Mekong from Laos, to a storage place.[1]Border patrol police and soldiers later searched the suspects’ houses and seized three vehicles.[1]Phuthorn claimed it was his first involvement in the drug trade, which the authorities did not believe.[1]
The arrest followed an investigation finding the suspects close to a trafficking network that bought marijuana in Laos and stored it before delivery to Thai agents, and the authorities said they would expand the investigation to others involved.[1]
Photos and video
Border Patrol Police Company 235 officers display the seized compressed cannabis bricks at the briefing.Photo details
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