DSI tracks down buyers of cold pills via money transfers, calls
The buyers of pseudoephedrine tablets that went missing from government hospitals have been identified and tracked down through their money transactions and phone conversations, the Department of Special Investigation said yesterday.
Asked whether the buyers and their middlemen were high-ranking Public Health Ministry officials – as stated by Phasit Sakdanarong, a ministry adviser– DSI director-general Tharit Phengdit said people at many levels were involved.
“But don't jump to a conclusion yet over which levels. Inspection and fact-finding takes time,” he added.
The DSI had heeded Phasit's tip-offs and scrutinised them, he said, adding that “small fish” would be immune and treated as witnesses in exchange for their testimony against the “big fish”.
Phasit said earlier he had submitted details of his unheralded visits to six hospitals to the DSI even before it had decided to take over the pseudoephedrine cases from police.
“The visits without prior appointment yielded documents and evidence valuable to the DSI investigation, and those obtained from two of the six hospitals have implicated high-ranking ministry officials,” he said.
Tharit held a meeting with ministry officials to discuss an automatic DSI takeover in future cases involving another nine medicinal items and cosmetics. Jurisdiction could possibly be approved by April through amendment to DSI regulations.
The meeting also agreed to officially consolidate efforts comprising all relevant agencies –including Food and Drug Administration, the ministry and its Department of Health Service Support – in the ongoing crackdown. National police chief Pol General Priewpan Damapong denied that local police in provinces where pseudoephedrine had surfaced had not cooperated with DSI after it took over the cases. He said pseudoephedrine had been treated as an illicit drug and all anti-narcotics units, including the police's unit – apart from the Office of Narcotics Control Board and Anti-money Laundering Office – were working well together.
Wrappers and packages of pseudoephedrine tablets were found burned and discarded yesterday in the Kok River in Chiang Mai, where two government hospitals had reported pseudoephedrine cases. The debris weighed about 5 kg and carried serial numbers which made it easier for police and DSI agents to track down its delivery destinations, Tharit said.
An internal investigation at Kamalasai hospital, where 350,000 pseudoephedrine pills had disappeared, would be completed this week. Hospital staff suspected of involvement had given useful information, said local police who helped DSI question suspects, offering protection to those willing to speak out.
