The Narcotic Suppression Bureau (NSB) has raided 20 locations in the North and Central regions, arrested four suspects and seized about 100 million baht worth of assets in a crackdown on three major drug networks.
NSB commissioner Pol Lt Gen Sarayut Sa-nguanpokai said yesterday that the raided locations were in Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, Tak, Saraburi and Ayutthaya provinces. Police were also armed with court warrants for the arrest of nine suspects.
Police seized about 60 items, including cash, cars, vans, tractors, a bus, motorcycles, plots of land with buildings and land title deeds worth about 100 million baht in total.
Of the nine wanted suspects, police managed to arrest four.
One was Chaiwat Liangwong, 46, suspected of being a member of the Nong Talo drug network.
Deputy national police chief Pol Gen Chinapat Sarasin, who was in charge of the operation, questioned Mr Chaiwat himself, but the suspect denied any involvement in the network.
The raids were the result of police operations against three drug networks in 2022.
The first operation targeted the Nai Hoy Thamin drug network, in which police arrested three drug couriers, seized 7 million methamphetamine pills in Ayutthaya and adjacent areas and impounded 11 million baht worth of assets. Three other suspects were subsequently arrested, and assets worth 35 million baht seized in the North.
A second operation against the so-called Logistic Trucks drug network saw an employee of a delivery company in the North arrested with 2 million meth pills at a checkpoint in Lampang.
The third group targeted was the Nong Talo network. Three suspected couriers were arrested with 279 kilogrammes of crystal methamphetamine, known as ya ice, in Phatthalung.