A man arrested with 3 million baht worth of marijuana in Udon Thani has told police that he agreed to smuggle the drugs because he needed the money for his wedding.
Pongpan Walasud, 26, a resident of Bung Kan province, was apprehended after local police and border patrol officers searched a car parked at a petrol station in Muang district of the northeastern province on Friday evening. Inside the Toyota Camry sedan, which had a Bangkok licence plate, they found five fertiliser sacks containing 297 bars of compressed marijuana, each weighing a kilogramme.
The suspect and the seized drugs were taken to a police news conference in Udon Thani on Saturday.
Police said Mr Pongpan confessed that he had been hired for 10,000 baht a trip by two men in Bung Kan, identified only as Nate and Siang, to deliver the marijuana to a dealer in Udon Thani.
He told them he agreed to do the job as he wanted to get 30,000 baht for his wedding. He claimed this was the first time he had done such work.
The arrest followed an investigation into a Laos-based gang that was reported to be smuggling marijuana into the country via Bung Khong Long district of Bung Kan. The drugs were destined for Udon Thani, said Pol Col Sombat Bunsopha, superintendent of the 24th border patrol police unit.