MUKDAHAN: A village head and two other accomplices have been arrested and 480kg of compressed marijuana with a street value of at least 10 million baht seized on the bank of the Mekong River in this northeastern province.
The trio were Phuthorn Wongwai, 57, head of village Moo 11 in tambon Pong Kham of Wan Yai district, Mukdahan; assistant village head Yutthana Wongwai, 41; and Phoonsak Eksaphang, 34, said Pol Col Sippanan Sornkhunkaew, commander of the Border Patrol Police Company 235, during a media briefing on Saturday.
Seized from them were 480kg of compressed marijuana. The three men were about to take the drugs that were smuggled via the Mekong River to a storage place when officers spotted them.
Border patrol police and soldiers later searched the suspects’s houses and seized three vehicles.
Mr Phuthorn claimed this was the first time he had been involved in the drug trade but authorities were not convinced.
The arrest followed an investigation that the suspects had been close to a drug trafficking network. The gang had bought marijuana from Laos and kept it in their storage before delivering to Thai agents.
Authorities would expand the investigation to include others who were involved, Thai media reported.
Border Patrol Police Company 235 displays packs of compressed marijuana, weighing 480kg, seized from three drug suspects, during a media briefing on Saturday. (Photo taken from @provincialnews191 Facebook page)