Heroin mules busted during police raids

Heroin mules busted during police raids

A police officer shows heroin in a capsule-like plastic wrap seized in the bust of a transnational gang. Apichart Jinakul
A police officer shows heroin in a capsule-like plastic wrap seized in the bust of a transnational gang. Apichart Jinakul

Six Nepalese and one Indian national were arrested in a crackdown on a gang smuggling heroin from Myanmar to Hong Kong via Thailand, the Immigration Bureau (IB) said yesterday.

The suspects were identified as Bir Gongbotamang Singh, 50, Sudarshan Thapa, 50, Bir Prasad Gurung, 51, Tamang Suresh, 36, Abashesh Gurung, 37, Kare Gurung, 62, and Lal Gurung, 49. Lal Gurung is Indian and the rest are Nepalese, said Chuchat Tharichat, chief of the IB's investigation division.

Mr Singh was arrested last Wednesday while attempting to board a plane from Chiang Mai to Bangkok with 40 packets of heroin weighing a total of 15.5kg stashed in his luggage, said Pol Maj Gen Chuchat.

The next day police raided a condominium in Soi Sukhumvit 77 in Suan Luang district of Bangkok and detained Lal Gurung and Mr Thapa along with 1.45kg of heroin found in their possession, he said.

The drug was found in plastic bags containing a logo of two lions standing on a globe and small plastic wraps that looked like capsules containing the drugs. They were believed to have been prepared for the two suspected traffickers to swallow before they travelled to Hong Kong to deliver the drugs to customers there, he said.

The other four suspects were detained in a separate raid carried out at an apartment also in Soi Sukhumvit 77 last Friday.

Police learned after arresting the first three suspects that the other four would be hired to smuggle heroin to Hong Kong by each swallowing at least 50 capsule-like wraps, police said.

The suspects were found to have been hired for at least 100,000 baht each to smuggle the drugs to Hong Kong for the gang whose leader is being tracked down by police, he said.

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