Police on Thursday seized a large haul of marijuana with a street value of 50 million baht and arrested a Lao woman and a Thai man in a sting operation in Ubon Ratchathani.
Police identified the Thai suspect as Srisuwan Tangjai, 48, a native of Ubon Ratchathani. His 36-year-old accomplice from the southern Lao province of Champasak is known only as Pan.
The pair were apprehended after they delivered a combined total of almost 2,500 kg of compressed cannabis, bars of hashish and powdered marijuana in two long-tailed boats across the Mekong River from Laos to an undercover police officer who posed as a buyer on a Thai bank in tambon None Somboon of Det Udom district early in the morning.
Pol Col Ploy Pimpisarn, commander Provincial Police Region 3 investigators, said the suspects were hired by a Lao investor, who had earlier been contacted by a police detective, for 20,000 baht to deliver the drug stash.
They allegedly admitted to trafficking several other times. The cannabis smuggled earlier was destined for Greater Bangkok where it would be sold in the Klong Toey area before being transported to the lower South, he said.
The two suspects arrested with B50m in marijuana in Ubon Ratchathani are brought before a press conference. (Photos by Prasit Tangprasert)