Police target alleged Sadayu drugs gang

The seizure of illicit drugs, cash and weapons was part of a search operation on Wednesday and yesterday at more than 20 locations linked to Sadayu’s gang, including a “thank you” party for associates and customers at a resort in Nakhon Ratchasima’s Pak Chong district. 

A pre-dawn police raid at the resort ended in a car chase and shootout in Sara Buri in which one suspect, Surasak Booonthap, 24, was killed and three others arrested.

One police officer, Pol Lt-Colonel Thiwapong Pulto, suffered gunshot wounds in the incident.

Narcotics Suppression Bureau chief Pol Lt-General Rewat Klinkesorn told a press conference yesterday that the operation resulted in the arrest of 33 suspects and the seizure of many items including 172,000 yaba pills, six kilograms of crystal meth or “ice”, 1,450 ecstasy pills, Bt33 million in cash and two yet-unopened safe boxes. Later yesterday, police seized one more safe box from a condominium rented by Sadayu in Bangkok’s Rattana Thibet area and discovered another Bt60 million in cash and 10 guns.

Rewat said police would file charges against the suspects including possessing Category I narcotics with intent to sell, conspiring to commit drug offences and conspiring to launder money.

Police had spent more than six months working on the case, culminating in this week’s raids, he said.

Sadayu, 24, also known as an amateur sharpshooter, was allegedly part of a criminal street gang known on social media as the “Oros Gang” before walking out to set up his own operation in the Bangkok area.

Police found that Sadayu’s alleged breakaway street-racing gang obtained illicit drugs from a neighbouring country for distribution in Bangkok and neighbouring provinces, mainly Nonthaburi.

Rewat said Sadayu remained elusive but added that it would be difficult for him to flee Thailand thanks to neighbouring countries’ cooperation in fighting drug crime.