Four held, B80m drugs seized in Songkhla

SONGKHLA: Four members of a major drug gang in the South have been arrested separately in Muang and Hat Yai district of Songkhla, with 2 million speed pills worth 80 million baht seized from them.

Police also took three pistols, two pickup trucks, a van, two motorcycles and four mobile phones from the  four suspects, said Pol Lt Gen Ronnasilp Phusara, chief of Provincial Police Region 9, during a media briefing on Friday.

The suspects were identified as Arneesa Yeng, 30, Wisarut Almart, 34, both natives of Mayor districts of Pattani, Pari Mayusor, 36, of Narathiwat’s Waeng district and a 19-year-old teenager, identified only as Apichart, 19, of Narathiwat’s Sungai Kolok district. 

Police investigators from Provincial Police Region 9 and Songkhla police office have closely monitored activities of this drug gang since 2017 and recently learned that illicit drugs would be smuggled from the North to be kept at a rented house in Muang district of Songkhla, said Pol Lt Gen Ronnasilp.

The officers then searched the house and found packs of 2 million speed pills in fertiliser sacks.

Ms Arneesa and Mr Wisarut were apprehended and three pistols and other items seized from them during the raid on June 16, said the regional police chief.

While police were interrogating Ms Arneesa and Mr Wisarut on that day, a phone call was made to one their phones to order 400,000 speed pills. The officers then plotted to capture the other two drug gang members — Mr Pari and Mr Apichart — on Hat Yai-Pattani Road in tambon Khuan Lang of Hat Yai district.

Pol Lt Gen Ronnasilp said the seized drugs, with a market value of about 80 million baht, were destined for a neighbouring country via Sungai Kolok district. The investigators were extending the investigation to arrest the smugglers.