A total of 120 pub-goers tested positive for drugs and packages of narcotics seized during a police raid on a pub in Bangkok’s Bang Khen district in the early hours of Wednesday
A combined team of city police and narcotics suppression officials raided Space pub on Pradit Manutham Road in Tha Raeng area at around 3am.
Hundreds of people, mostly dressed in student uniforms, were found dancing and drinking inside the one-storey pub. They fled in panic, but around 200 pub-goers were soon rounded up. Small packages of drugs, including ecstasy, ketamine and electronic cigarettes, were found scattered around the area, Thai media reported.
Sumet Ruamkaew, 28, admitted to being the pub's manager, police said.
Pol Col Jirakrit Jarunpat, commander of the police's women and children welfare division, who led the raid, said the pub had been in operation for two months.
Police received information that narcotics were being used inside the venue, and coordinated with other agencies to conduct the raid.
No customers aged under 18 were found inside. All the pub-goers were asked to submit urine tests and 120 of them -- including 70 men and 50 women -- tested positive for drugs. The pub would be ordered closed for 5 years, said Pol Col Jirakrit.
Police initially charged the pub manager with operating the pub illegally, operating beyond legal opening hours and illegal sales of alcohol in violation of an order issued by the National Council for Peace and Order.