Narcotic Suppression Police officers raided a one-year-old factory-warehouse in Samut Prakan that allegedly manufactured cannabis tincture for export, deputy national police chief Pol General Chalermkiat Srivorakhan told a press conference on Thursday afternoon.[1] The raid in Bang Phli district netted 70 kilograms of cannabis tincture, six kilograms of hashish and some equipment.[1] A police roundup of the same announcement puts the hashish at 6.6 kilograms.[1]
Police said the facility was backed for the most part by a Japanese investor and had allegedly succeeded in smuggling five tonnes of cannabis tincture to Belgium in March.[1] Detection in Belgium of the tincture hidden in pressed coconut coir fibre led Thai police to the Samut Prakan site, and raw materials came from drug-trafficking groups based in Thailand and Laos.[1]
Four arrests
Police arrested four suspects: British man Joseph Toole, 67, who allegedly trained workers and performed quality control, in Chon Buri’s Bang Lamung district; Canadian investor David Kulik, 65, in Chon Buri’s Muang district; Thai man Suriyan Suwanchairop, 34, in Sakhon Nakhon; and Thai man Supakit Kaewma, 54, in Bangkok.[1] The Office of the Narcotics Control Board said the four were charged with production, possession and sale of narcotics from the Samut Prakan factory over more than a year.[2]
