After about two months of surveillance following neighbour complaints about cannabis odour, Thailand’s immigration bureau and officials of the Department of Thai Traditional and Alternative Medicine searched a three-storey rented house in Soi Khu Bon 27, Bang Khen district, Bangkok, on Monday 19 October 2026 under a Min Buri Criminal Court warrant.[1][2]
Officers arrested one Vietnamese man and four Myanmar nationals who were sorting and packing cannabis buds for customers in Bangkok; black bags of buds were stacked throughout the house, totalling more than five tonnes.[1][2] Immigration Bureau chief Pol Lt Gen Noppasilp Poonsawat said the house had ventilation piping to discharge smell outdoors, and that Myanmar workers were paid about 200–300 baht a day while the Vietnamese suspect appeared to supervise the work.[1][2]
Investigators said a Thai tenant had leased the property more than a year earlier before the foreign workers moved in.[1][2] A licence linked to the operation was issued in Nong Bua Lam Phu province and did not cover processing or distribution in Bangkok; a department legal officer said that breach of the Thai Traditional Medical Knowledge Protection and Promotion Act carries up to one year in prison and/or a 20,000-baht fine.[1][2] Police said the buds would be sent for laboratory tests and that inquiries into the renter and suppliers were continuing.[1][2]