NAKHON PATHOM – Police have arrested a Ghanaian man and a Thai woman in connection with an attempt to import T-shirts impregnated with cocaine worth 3 million baht.
The pair were arrested after they came to a hotel in Muang district to collect two parcels mailed from Argentina containing three T-shirts. The shirts were to be soaked in water to release the cocaine, which would then crystallise before being processed for sale.
The two were identified as Frank Annoni, 34, and Naruemon Noksaeng, 25, said Narcotics Supression Bureau deputy chief Surapol Thuanthong.
The arrest came after police had received reports that an African drug gang planned to smuggle narcotic drugs from Argentina to Thailand through the Nakhon Pathom provincial post office.
Police on Thursday morning found two suspect parcels sent from the South American country, addressed to a recipient identified as Ms Srisuda Kannakorn at the Ratchaphruek Pavilion Hotel.
Officers set up a surveillance team at the hotel and waited for Mr Annoni and Ms Naruemon to pick up the packages. A search found three T-shirts that appeared to have been soaked in water filled with cocaine powder in order to make it stick to the shirts and go undetected when they dried.
The suspects claimed someone had asked them to collect the packages and send them to an African national in Bangkok, and that they had no idea there were drugs inside.
However, police did not believe them as they had information that the pair had been involved with an international drug ring, said Pol Maj Gen Surapol.