UDON THANI: Twenty-two people have been arrested in a hotel room in downtown Muang district with some illicit drugs during a pre-dawn raid.
A team of police, officers from the Patrol and Special Operation Division and local officials raided the room at Tonkoon Hotel around 5.30am on Saturday.
They found several people who appeared to be intoxicated inside the crowded room.
Upon seeing the officers, they tried to flee, but 22 people were caught, Pol Maj Gen Phitsanu Unhaseri, chief of Udon Thani police, said during a media briefing.
Seized from the room were four small packs of ketamine and three ecstasy pills.
The 10 men and 12 women, aged between 21 and 46, were from Udon Thani (18), Chon Buri (2), Nong Bua Lamphu (1) and Laos (1).
They were charged with colluding in having illicit drugs in their possession, violating the emergency decree and the disease control orders.
Udon Thani governor Sayam Sirimongkhol said an initial interrogation found that these people visited an entertainment venue and later went to the hotel allegedly for a drug party. They made an appointment at the hotel via social media.
All would be taken for Covid-19 tests as one of them was from Chon Buri, a maximum-control zone.
The governor threatened to take legal action against the operator for negligence for allowing illegal gathering.