Pills smuggled from Korea
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The Department of Special Investigation is looking into the suspicious transport of 850 million pseudoephedrine-based cold medicine tablets from South Korea into Thailand via various airlines, DSI chief Tharit Pengdit said yesterday.
Cold medicine containing pseudoephedrine had been transported into Thailand on nine occasions in 2010, falsely declared as other items, Tharit said, adding that the shipping company responsible was under investigation.
The suspected smuggling of medicines from South Korea would be probed separately from the ongoing investigation into the disappearance of pseudoephedrine-based medicine from hospitals, he said.
The DSI’s board will consider whether to take up the hospitals case at a meeting on Wednesday.
Tharit said 11 hospital directors had provided testimony to the DSI, whose investigators would visit the North and Northeast to interview drug-storage officials and pharmacists at hospitals reporting suspiciously high demand for such medicine.
