Tourist bus owner arrested for transporting drugs
The owner of an air-conditioned coach has been arrested in Kanchanaburi after he accepted an offer to charter his bus to smuggle 220,000 methamphetamine pills to the South.
Warundorn Dikij, 41, a Bangkok resident, was arrested shortly after Nakhon Pathom police arrested two other men in a car at a road checkpoint in Muang district and found the drug at 2am on Monday.
Pol Maj Gen Surapong Chaichan, deputy commissioner of the Provincial Police Bureau 7, held a press conference at the bureau Tuesday to announce the arrest.
Surapong said the two other suspects, Sakariya Masamae, 51, the car driver, and Jirasak Lon-aree, 31, admitted that they were hired to deliver the drug to Warundorn in Kanchanaburi, and Warundorn would then smuggle the drug aboard his coach back to Yala.
So police let the two suspects proceed to deliver the drug to Warundorn in Kanchanaburi’s Muang district, where police arrested the bus owner.
Warundorn said his bus was chartered to take a group of 40 tourists to visit Chiang Mai on February 17. He met an unnamed drug boss who promised him Bt800,000 to take the drug from Kanchanaburi to Yala.
During the return trip, Warundorn had his tour group stay overnight in Kanchanaburi so he could pick up the drug.
After Warundorn's arrest, police searched the 40 tourists to make sure none of them were involved. They then arranged another bus to take them back to Yala.