Pill traffickers use firms' names: DSI
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A shipping company secretly used credible companies' names to order pseudo-ephedrine cold medicine from countries such as South Korea, then used logistics loopholes to "lose" the goods on the way, the Department of Special Investigation (DSI) revealed yes
In regard to the smuggling of pseudo-ephedrine cold medicine via false declarations, DSI deputy chief Sansern Palawatwichai said investigators found that drug orders declared the medicine as a mixture of 2.5 milligrams of Triprodrine and 10 milligrams of pseudo-ephedrine, while the declaration to a Thai authority said it was antibiotics.
After an inspection at the Cargo Clearance Customs Bureau at Suvarnabhumi Airport yesterday, initial inquiries with Customs got confirmation that import declarations of the Thai Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Korean FDA matched, he said. However, their observation of the real procedure found officials only randomly checked imported goods, as they were large lots of products many of which were chemicals and vaccines. So, they could check 3 per cent of all goods that passed through, he said.
If the products were medicines, Thai FDA officials would inspect the products. Declaration forms for these must include documents identifying the ingredients. Then the FDA would pass it to Customs to issue a certificate to release the goods, he explained.
Sansern said that one of nine imports of cold pills with pseudo-ephedrine did not have approval from the FDA and they suspected the problem was a shipping company’s procedure. Customs officials told the DSI there were legal and illegal shipping firms, so mistakes could happen.
They were also told some illegal shipping companies may use credible companies’ names to order goods and take them without a Customs inspection, especially those labelled “transit cargo” that Customs isn’t authorised to open.
However, much “transit cargo” was lost on the way and specialist officials in and outside Thailand were checking when goods may be switched.
In regard to the probe into cold pills containing pseudo-ephedrine that went missing from state and private hospitals, pharmacists at nine hospitals were tightly tied by evidence. They would initially face charges of embezzlement and negligence of duty, while they needed more time to learn if hospital directors were involved, Sansern said.
