Bid to smuggle heroin to Hong Kong in pillows busted
THREE DRUG suspects – two from Hong Kong – have been arrested for allegedly trying to smuggle heroin out of Thailand via a cargo container.
The illicit drug, which was hidden inside rubber pillows in the container, were worth more than Bt100 million.
“We detected irregularities before the container was shipped to Hong Kong,” Customs Department director-general Kulit Sombatsiri said at the weekend.
He said officials operating an X-ray machine noticed that there were something hidden inside the pillows.
According to him, there were two heroin bars in each stuffed pillow. Together, 80 bars or 28 kilos of illicit drugs were found.
“Y&S Solutions Trading Co Ltd had arranged for the transport of this container to Hong Kong,” Kulit said.
This firm was registered only on January 30. Last month, it sent two lots of rubber pillows to Hong Kong too but nothing suspicious was found.
The Customs Department has already blacklisted this firm. Three people suspected to be involved in its business have now been charged with drug possession and smuggling.
From last October until now, the Customs Department has already seized Bt144 million worth of illicit drugs while being smuggled into or out of the country.
Narcotics Suppression Bureau chief Pol Lt-General Sommai Kongwisaisuk said drug-trafficking networks had been upgrading their operations across the world.
“I am now in the process of asking for a budget to develop full-scale narcotics checkpoints,” he said, “These checkpoints will have greater efficiency.”
Sommai said as for now, officials had been instructed to be active in suppressing drugs, including during the Songkran holidays.
“We will not lower our guard. Some traffickers may think we will not have enough staff during Songkran, as officials may need to help with other work during the period,” he said.
Sommai added that his agency had now been working with authorities in neighbouring nations in a bid to fight the scourge of drugs.
A famous Facebook page has lately said there had been 11 drug factories along Thailand’s shared borders with neighbours, with the capacity to produce 20 million drug pills a day.