The Office of the Consumer Protection Board (OCPB) denies its officials were involved with the production of weight-loss drugs linked to the death of a 30-year-old woman in Ang Thong last week as the drug producer claims.
The person accused, in fact, is a Royal Thai Police officer working for the Consumer Protection Police Division (CPPD) which is a different agency, according to the OCPB in remarks to the media yesterday.
"The name and rank of the police officer have been identified," the OCPB said without elaborating.
Waspasson Sulamnaj, owner of the unlicensed weight-loss drug factory in Kalasin, which was raided on Saturday, claimed a high-ranking officer from the OCPB supplied powder for drug production in exchange for 20,000 baht a month.
OCPB investigator Pathawee Yaowalak and police yesterday questioned Ms Waspasson at Na Mon police station in Kalasin.
The officers said Ms Waspasson wrongly believed the officer was attached to the OCPB. The drugs found at the factory will be examined later, they said.
Pol Maj Gen Prasit Chalermvuthisak, secretary-general of the OCPB, meanwhile, said the person who Ms Waspasson liaised with was actually a police officer attached to CPPD, on the fourth floor of the Government Complex on Chaeng Watthana Road, which the suspect had mentioned during the raid. "The police officer has been identified," he said. "If more information comes to hand, we will update you."
He also pointed out the OCPB had no duty to oversee weight-loss drugs, while the Food and Drug Administration is in charge of examining medicines or dietary supplements and issuing licences to suppliers of the products.
Meanwhile, police at the CPPD are responsible for conducting investigations and crackdowns, and also have access to confiscated banned drugs. Deputy national police chief Wirachai Songmetta said the drugs contained the banned appetite suppressant sibutramine -- the excessive consumption of which can cause kidney failure and death.
He also said the factory owner had produced weight-loss products for Magic Skin Co out of its old factory in Samut Sakhon.
"However, the owner simply set up another factory in Kalasin, which was the largest illegal weight-loss production facility ever found in Thailand," Pol Gen Wirachai said.
Police would conduct an investigation to see if any government official was behind the racket.