The Anti-Money Laundering Office has impounded 43 assets worth about 40 million baht from Lao drug kingpin Xaysana Keopimpha and his accomplices for inspection.
Amlo on Tuesday made public its transaction committee’s resolution of Jan 15 to seize the assets of Xaysana and his accomplices, in the wake of the arrest of Witthaya Sopha in Chumphon in possession of 2.3 million methamphetamine pills by highway police on Sept 16, 2015.
The extended investigation found that Xaysana and Thai accomplice Chumphon Phanompai were behind the smuggling of the drugs into the country.
This led to the arrest of the Lao drug boss and his two accomplices.
The Amlo transaction committee checked the assets of Xaysana and his accomplices and found 43 items, -- property, luxury cars and watches and brand-name bags -- with no documentation to account for their purchase and possession.
The committee resolved on Jan 15 to seize all 43 items, worth about 40 million baht, for inspection for 90 days, from Jan 15 to April 14.
On September last year, the Criminal Court sentenced Xaysana and Chumphon each to life imprisonment for smuggling one million speed pills into southern Thailand, but acquitted another Thai, Ratchapon Ratsaponpakorn, who was alleged to have handled the financial side of drug sales in Malaysia.
Xaysana and Chumphon were initially sentenced to death, but it was reduced to life in jail because they cooperated with the court. Xaysana was already serving a life sentence for another offence.
Prosecutors charged all three with smuggling drugs into the country on two occasions - 2.38 million meth pills between July 24 and Sept 16, 2015 and another one million pills between Aug 17 and 22, 2015.
