Police have nabbed three drug suspects with more than 90,000 methamphetamine pills and 700 grammes of crystal meth in their possession at a temple in Ang Thong’s Wiset Chai Chan district.
Three suspects are brought before the media at the Crime Suppression Division on Friday after being accused of producing illicit drugs and possessing them for sale. They were nabbed on Thursday afternoon at a temple in Ang Thong. (Photo by Somchai Poomlard)
Pol Lt Gen Thitirat Nongharnpitak, commissioner of the Central Investigation Bureau, said Crime Suppression Division police apprehended Poonsawat Keawkem, 45, Tarunpassakorn Tomsung, 44 and Tawit Neampong, 41 at a parking space of Wat Muang located in tambon Huataphan, Wiset Chai Chan district in Ang Thong province on Thursday afternoon.
Police received a tip-off from an informant that Mr Poonsawat is a major drug dealer who had supplied drugs to customers in Bangkok and the outskirts of the city, Pol Lt Gen Thitirat said.
A police investigation discovered the drug network had produced more than one million methamphetamine pills worth more than 200 million baht, he said.
On Thursday, police tracked down Mr Poonsawat, who was driving a pickup truck heading to Wat Muang.
At one point, he stopped the pickup truck at the temple and a man driving another pickup immediately parked his vehicle near Mr Poonsawat’s.
Mr Poonsawat then carried a sack to the vehicle parked near his.
Police who had waited in ambush behind the temple caught Mr Poonsawat and two other suspects inside the other pickup truck.
A total of 80,000 methamphetamine pills were found inside the sack and seized, police said.
Police later went to Mr Poonsawat’s house in Kanchanaburi and Ms Tarunpassakorn and Mr Tawit’s house in Uthai Thani to search for other illicit drugs that might have been hidden there.
They found another 16,000 methamphetamine pills hidden in bags of sunflower seeds and 716 grammes of crystal methamphetamine, widely known as ya ice, together with equipment for drug production and drug paraphernalia.
Mr Poonsawat allegedly confessed to investigators that he was charged with possessing drugs for sale two years ago.
After being released from prison, he started up a cassava business but made a loss last year.