Singer 'Pookie', husband get 38 years for drug dealing
published : 5 Nov 2020 at 10:01
writer: Gary Boyle
ORIGINAL SOURCE/WRITER: Online Reporters
The Criminal Court on Wednesday sentenced former pop singer Prissana Praisaeng and her husband to prison for 38 years and nine months on charges of drug dealing and money laundering.
Prissana, widely known by her nickname "Pookie", 41, and her husband, Cholavit Keetatraku, 50, were also fined 3.6 million baht.
The court sentenced the pair to life imprisonment, and then commuted the sentences because they confessed.
Taiwanese national Hung Cheng Yi, 29, was given 25 years in jail and fined 2.5 million baht.
The three were charged with possessing and selling drugs, and laundering money.
"Pookie", who rose to fame in Thailand with the song Sha-La-La-La-La about 20 years ago, and her husband were arrested on June 17 last year at their house in Bang Khen district.
The couple was accused of working with the Taiwanese man to ship the drugs to Taiwan.
He was arrested first at a hotel in Lat Krabang district with 5.17 kilogrammes of ketamine, and said the couple were his suppliers.
Police raided their house and found four grammes of ketamine, 98.3 grammes of crystal meth, eight methamphetamine pills, 10 ecstasy pills and 40gm of marijuana, along with chemicals and equipment believed used to produce drugs in their house.
Vocabulary
- accuse: to say that someone has done something wrong or committed a crime - กล่าวหา
- commute (a punishment): to change a punishment to one that is less severe - ลดโทษ (รุนแรงให้น้อยลง)
- confessed (verb): admitted to having committed a crime - สารภาพผิด
- crystal methamphetamine (noun): a white crystalline form of the drug methamphetamine that people take by inhaling through the nose, smoking it or injecting it with a needle -
- ecstasy (noun): an illegal drug, taken especially by young people at parties, clubs, etc. - ยาอี
- ketamine (noun): a drug that causes a lack of feeling in the body -
- laundering: money laundering; laundering money; hiding the origin of money obtained from illegal activities by putting it into legal businesses - การฟอกเงิน
- life sentence: a punishment of life in prison - จำคุกตลอดชีวิต
- marijuana (noun): a drug (illegal in many countries) made from the dried leaves and flowers of the hemp plant, which gives the person smoking it a feeling of being relaxed - กัญชา, ต้นกัญชา
- possess: to have or own something - ครอบครอง, ถือครอง
