Police nab suspected 'Mr X'

Police nab suspected 'Mr X'

Police assembled a profile of alleged drug lord Xaysana Keopimpha, but only after they contacted Lao authorities after he was arrested on Jan 19 at Suvarnabhumi airport. (Photo by Patipat Janthong)
Police assembled a profile of alleged drug lord Xaysana Keopimpha, but only after they contacted Lao authorities after he was arrested on Jan 19 at Suvarnabhumi airport. (Photo by Patipat Janthong)

The recent arrest of Xaysana Keopimpha, a 41-year-old Lao national, has brought officials face-to-face with the relatively young figure allegedly at the top of one of the region's drug dealing groups.

The drug suppression officers had little idea at first who Mr Xaysana was until they investigated deeper and realised he was potentially an important drug kingpin they were after.

On Jan 19, Narcotics Suppression Bureau (NSB) police detained Mr Xaysana at Suvarnabhumi airport while he was en route to Phuket on a pleasure trip.

Police seized a bundle of cash from him, including US$35,000 (1.2 million baht). Following his arrest, police raided 36 spots in Thailand believed to be connected to the suspected Lao drug boss and seized assets worth close to 1 million baht.

Before nabbing Mr Xaysana, the NSB referred to him only as "Mr X". All the office knew was that he was an influential person behind at least three major drug cases, said Pol Lt Gen Sommai Kongwisaisuk, chief of the NSB.

Police are continuing to build their cases against Mr Xaysana in what is an ongoing investigation, and have only mentioned that they have credible evidence connecting him with the drugs, which they have not divulged publicly.

Each case involved a vast amount of crystal methamphetamine, he said.

Officials figured that only a very influential person in drug circles could mastermind the trafficking of drugs of such magnitude.

"His telephone number traced him back to the cases but none of the Thai or Lao police knew who he was before. No information about him was found in the US Drug Enforcement Administration database.

"Because of this mystery, we gave him the name Mr X," said Pol Lt Gen Sommai. "Out of nowhere, Mr X has emerged. He appeared to be a big fish."

Luck was on the NSB's side as it managed to get hold of information indicating that Mr X always used the same telephone number in his drug dealings.

In the first major drug case linked to Mr X, police on March 24 last year raided a Bangkok-Hat Yai-Butterworth (Malaysia) train during a stop at Prachuap Khiri Khan station. Seven Malaysian suspects were detained and 74 kilogrammes of crystal methamphetamine were confiscated.

Police expanded the investigation and detained eight more Malaysian suspects. They also seized more crystal meth, increasing the total haul to 226kg, plus 8kg of heroin.

In the second case, the NSB, with help from its Malaysian counterpart, on March 30 arrested two Malaysian nationals as they tried to smuggle two cars with about 282kg of the crystal meth hidden in them from Malaysia through the immigration checkpoint in the Sadao district of Songkhla.

In the third case, the NSB along with a number of Australian police in Thailand arrested nine suspects and seized 500kg of crystal meth. Six suspects were detained at a security checkpoint on Phetkasem Road in Chumphon while the others were later arrested in the Hat Yai district of Songkhla.

The police also checked back on other major drug cases in the last five years and discovered, through phone records, that Mr X was implicated in some of them.

Gradually, officials were able to piece together the identity of Mr X.

They went to Laos to find out more about him and they learned police there are struggling to deal with rising drug problems as well.

At the time, the Laos police told the Thai team they had no criminal record of Mr Xaysana.

After the Laos trip, the police gathered additional evidence which led to the Jan 19 arrest of Mr Xaysana on charges of colluding to deal in drugs.

"Normally, most drugs smuggled [directly] into Thailand come from Wa State in Myanmar. However, the drugs smuggled in by Mr Xaysana's network were first brought to a transit point in the northern part of Laos and later to Thailand," said Pol Lt Gen Sommai.

The drugs were then distributed to southern Thailand. Some were sold locally and the rest were smuggled into neighbouring Malaysia, he said.

Sirinya Sitdhichai, secretary-general of Office of the Narcotics Control Board (ONCB), said Mr Xaysana is a big sponsor of small drug-trafficking gangs which operate in the same network in Myanmar, Laos, Malaysia and Thailand.

The drug network also produces and supplies methamphetamine and crystal meth to its partner gangs in several countries, said Mr Sirinya.

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