Narcotics bureau announces seven busts and 17 arrests over seven days

NSB chief Pol Lt-General Sommai Kongwisaisuk said police officers had been trained in bitcoin currency out of a concern that drug-dealing gangs might shift to using the harder-to-detect currency in their trades.
In a press conference at the NSB head office in Bangkok, deputy national police chief Pol General Chalermkiat Srivorakan joined Sommai and other senior officers to announce the seven drugs busts to reporters. 
They cases are:
1. The arrest of two suspects – Kiattisak Tonesi, 37, and Chumpol Chanto, 50 – along with 510kg of marijuana in Sakhon Nakhon’s Sawang Dindaen district, which then was extended to arrest three more accomplices – Sonkimree, Chuchangwang, 52, Abdul-karim Manuya, 41, and Sirichai Salampor – and the seizure of assets worth Bt13 million.
2. The arrest of Pornsit Chumpong, 36, Manit Suwanmanee, 36, and Nikhom Kheedsamrong, 53, along with 300kg of “ice” and two pickup trucks and one sedan in the Northeast, which led to the arrest of accomplices in the South – Seulee Waeyusoh, 40, Asnida Jehmae, 41, Asiya Jehmae, 30, Azisi Jehmae, 44.
3. The arrest of Sornchai Thidaparungreung, 33, in Lampang province along with 288,000 yaba pills.
4. The arrest of a Venezuelan man, Jesus Alberto Seijas Garcia, 59, along with 4,180 grams of cocaine at Samut Prakan’s Suvarnabhumi Airport as he travelled from Ethiopia and transited at the Thai airport to take a connecting flight to Laos.
5. The arrest of an Ethiopian man, Desta Tamra Kalbeto, along with 3,120g of cocaine at Suvarnabhumi as he arrived from Ethiopia.
6. The arrest of an Ethiopian woman, Betelhem Hailemariam Mishama, along with 3,115g of cocaine at Suvarnabhumi as she arrived from Ethiopia.
7. The arrest of Ong-art Laowang, 32, along with the seizure of 200kg of “ice” and a pickup truck in Chumphon’s Muang district.
Discussing the case of the 300kg of “ice”, Sommai said the drugs were associated with gangs based in the Mekong River Basin that had expanded from illegal trading of Siamese Rosewood and dog meat.
Dodging a direct answer to a question about whether drug trafficking has been linked to unrest in the deep South, Sommai offered his “personal observation” that after almost every bomb attack, a drug transport would take place.
He said Thai police work closely with their Malaysian counterparts, so even if they did not intercept a drug shipment, Malaysian police would often make arrests.
Sommai said police would also work closely with related Thai agencies as well as their counterparts in other neighbouring countries to continue the crackdown on drug-trafficking rings.