Acting on information from the Office of the Narcotics Control Board (ONCB) of Thailand, Lao officials on Friday arrested a Bolivian woman with 3.52 kilogrammes of cocaine in her possession at Wattay international airport in Vientiane, ONCB secretary-general Niyom Termsrisuk said on Sunday.
Mr Niyom said an ONCB team tracking drug trafficking via airports discovered on Nov 8 that a Bolivian woman was booked to fly from Ethiopia's Addis Ababa airport to the Lao capital of Vientiane via Suvarnabhumi airport.
Mr Niyom did not disclose the suspect's name.
The ONCB passed the information to Lao drug suppression officials, who conducted a search on the woman on her arrival at Wattay international airport and found 3.52kg of cocaine hidden in her suitcase and arrested her for drug trafficking.
The ONCB chief said the success was a result of ongoing cooperation between Thai agencies -- including the Customs Department, the Royal Thai Police's Narcotics Suppression Bureau, the Immigration Police Bureau and the Armed Forces Security Centre -- and their counterparts in Asean under a project to intercept drugs at airports.
The project, known as the Airport Interdiction Task Force, is part of the government's urgent drug suppression measures which involve cooperation with foreign agencies, Mr Niyom said.