Police nab drug lord in South
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Police finally caught up with Nipon Chamroen, an alleged drug lord and hired gun in the South after tailing him for several years.
His assets worth Bt25 million were seized, including Bt1.1 million in cash, a fleet of cars and 54 rai of land.
Permpong Chavalit, secretary-general of the Narcotics Control Board, said yesterday that agents had been following the alleged criminal activities of Nipon since 2010, including robbery, debt-collecting and murder-for-hire.
The police investigation also found evidence that Nipon obtained illicit drugs from the North and delivered them to pushers in Songkhla, Satun, Yala, Narathiwat and Pattani provinces.
On October 9, Songkhla police nabbed 10 of his alleged accomplices, seized 20,070 yaba pills and 538 grams of “ice” along with weapons and ammunition, he said.
The gang implicated Nipon as the supplier of drugs, so police secured an arrest warrant for him.
After finally getting a tip-off on Nipon’s address in a housing estate in Pathum Thani’s Muang district and his temporary hideout in Kanchanaburi’s Sai Yok district, police and Army operatives launched |the hunt to trace and capture him, he said.
On Monday, Nipon, his younger brother and a woman who reportedly was his third wife drove a car to a food centre in Pathum Thani.
Police showed up to arrest him and confiscated his gun and ammunition, Permpong said. They later searched the wife’s house in Pathum Thani and then fanned out to seize assets at eight locations in Pathum Thani, Kanchanaburi, Nakhon Si Thammarat and Songkhla provinces.
However, they say Nipon only gave a partial confession, admitting that he was dealing drugs to get money for his farming business but denied any killing on contract.
