Anti-narcotics board plans crackdown
The Office of the Narcotics Control Board aims to arrest 10,000 blacklisted drug dealers in one year and get 400,000 drug addicts into rehabilitation programmes.
Presenting the policy to the board’s executives yesterday, secretary-general Pol General Adul Sangsingkaew said the urgent mission was to propel forward the National Command Centre for Drugs strategy. It would include two meetings per month and formulate the action plan for three months, six months, nine months and one year.
He said the strategy aimed to get 400,000 drug addicts into rehabilitation programmes and crack down on 8,000-10,000 drug dealers on its database as well as set up a war room to maximise ICT technologies in drug investigations.
Adul urged the board to seek public participation in convincing drug addicts in neighbourhoods to attend rehab programmes and to alert authorities of suspicious activity via the hotline 1386.
Deputy Metropolitan Police Commissioner Police Maj-General Itthipol Piriyapinyo said city police were instructed to crack down on drug activities in their jurisdictions and to search night clubs which reportedly let youngsters use and buy drugs on their premises. The clubs were particularly active on Friday and Saturday nights, especially in Ratchadaphisek, RCA (Rama 9) and Thong Lor areas.
Clubs violating the law would be closed and officials or police officers involved would face serious disciplinary action, he said.
The Metropolitan Police yesterday presented two male suspects aged 30 and 42 who were arrested at a Bangkok-Chon Buri Motorway checkpoint while allegedly transporting 70,000 yaba tablets for a drug ring in Chon Buri prison. The suspects reportedly confessed to transporting drugs twice before the arrest and receiving Bt25,000 for each run. They said an inmate, identified only as Ko from Chon Buri Prison, got them the job. Assistant Police Chief Pol Lt-General Worapong Chiewpreecha said this was a follow up from the arrest of a another suspect in Pathum Thani, which uncovered 780,000 yaba tablets.
At 6am yesterday, under the “big cleaning day” campaign in prisons today and tomorrow, some 400 police and officials searched the Rayong Provincial Prison and found in the cells seven drug-taking tools and 16 sharp objects. Ten cellphones, six MP3 players, seven SIM cards, four memory cards, seven earphone sets, six yaba tablets, five packs of crystal meth were also found concealed.
It was reported that cellphones were being sold illegally in prison at Bt100,000 per piece.
