Alleged drug baron Laota arrested again
Play
Drug-suppression police Tuesday arrested alleged drug baron Laota Sanli and 13 others in Chiang Mai in a sting operation.
Pol Majj Gen Sommai Kongwisaisuk, acting commissioner of the Narcotics Suppression Bureau, led the sting operation himself and arrested the suspects inside a petrol station in Mae Ai district while they were allegedly delivering 20 kilogrammes of crystal methamphetamine or “ice” to undercover police.
Sommai said the sting operation, in which Bt11 million in cash was used, was planned after informants informed the drug bureau that Laota who has been acquitted in a drug case had allegedly been trafficking drug again.
Laota is known to be a close aide of late drug kingpin and Shan war lord Khun Sa. He was arrested in 2003 but the Supreme Court acquitted him in 2007.
The court acquitted Laota because he affirmed that his money came from coffee plantation business.
Sommai said the sting operation had been palnned for over a year.
