Gold and cash found after raids in South
Security officials raided shops and a home in urban Narathiwat yesterday suspected of dealing drugs and laundering money for insurgents. They seized cash sums of baht and ringgit, plus gold ornaments worth more than Bt14 million.
One of the five locations is a house – owned by Suwessa Sulong, a Muslim woman and her police husband Sergeant Thanawat Yordtrakoolchai, who serves with an anti-narcotics unit – where 100,000 amphetamine tablets were found hidden in a raid last week.
Three other sites were gold shops, while the remaining location was a convenience store.
A senior police commander, Maj-General Suraphol Thuangthong, said Thanawat confessed to buying gold with drug money at the three gold shops, and implicated the gold shops as money launderers for insurgents and drug gangs.
However, no evidence linking owners and drug rackets was found at Yindee and Choke Chai gold shops, and police were looking for clues to explain why Liang Ah gold shop was robbed recently by men armed with automatic rifles who killed a co-owner and a security guard.
At Suweesa’s home, police found Bt600,000, plus 9,000 ringgit (Bt90,544) and gold ornaments weighing around 4.5 kilograms while she was “on the run”. At Liang Ah gold shop, Bt6 million, 700,000 ringgit (Bt7 million) and another 4.5 kg of gold were found and seized.
