Drug raid comes up empty
A 20-strong police commando team along with Narcotics Suppression Bureau (NSB) officers on Wednesday morning carried out a search of two condominiums in Bangkok’s Pin Klao area for a drug suspect under the network of alleged drug kingpin Jirat “Ek Ouan” Pensophonwitch.
However, nothing suspect or illegal was found.
The search was part of an operation codenamed “Chaiya Sayop Pairee 61/2”, to crackdown on drug-trafficking networks in Thailand.
In the Wednesday-morning search, officers were looking for a suspect named Thweesak Phurungreung, wanted under an arrest warrant issued last month on the charge of aiding drug trafficking.
Ek Ouan was arrested at his home in Nonthaburi last September along with Bt2 million in cash from a safe box and a bank book indicating a further Bt60 million in circulation.
Ek Ouan’s arrest stemmed from the police seizure of one million yaba pills and 400 kilograms of “ice” (crystal methamphetamine) in 2016 that he had allegedly ordered from the North to be distributed in the South and Central Thailand. The fact that Ek Ouan was using throwaway phone numbers allegedly supplied by people from neighbouring countries made it difficult for police to trace him.
