Samui grocery shop owner arrested for selling kratom
Police and Army troops arrested the owner of a grocery store on the tourist island of Koh Samui in Surat Thani for allegedly selling kratom leaves to youth.
Pairat Rachokan, 43, was arrested after troops from the 45th Army Circle and the Borphud police station found 11 kilograms of the kratom leaves in his shop on the Ban Bang Rak-Samui Airport road in Tambon Borphud at 7am on Tuesday.
Earlier, police at a road checkpoint arrested a young motorcyclist after a small amount of the drug was found on him. He told police he bought the kratom leaves from the shop and so police and troops followed up.
Police allege that Pairat said he had purchased the kratom leaves from another man to resell. He claimed he did not know the man’s name, police added.
The authorities then checked another grocery shop on the same road that had also been suspected of selling kratom leaves to youth. The authorities did not find the drug but did discover an illegal pistol and so arrested Thiradej Ruangthong, 48, the shop owner for possessing an illegal firearm.