Six members of a major drug network have been arrested and 5.6 million methamphetamine pills and 200 kilogrammes of ketamine seized during a police raid in Pathum Thani’s Lat Lum Kaeo district.
The four men and two women were taken into custody from a house in Nattanun Home housing estate in tambon Khu Kwang, Pol Gen Kitrat Panphet, the acting national police chief, told reporters.
He identified the male suspects as Kittithat Ketkaeo, 33; Kittisak Lordee, 24; Thaweesak Kaeosong, 33; and Pongsak Samlee, 31; and the women as Wilaiwan Kraiyarat, 35; and Chayapha Traikaeo, 32.
During the operation on Sunday night police seized 5.6 million meth pills and 200 kilogrammes of ketamine, and impounded a box pickup truck allegedly used for drug deliveries.
The raid and seizures followed the arrest of alleged drug agents by investigators from Metropolitan Police Bureau division 8 in the Thon Buri area of Bangkok and several drug dealers in the Ram Intra area early this month.
An extended investigation pointed to a large network distributing illicit drugs to agents in the Central Plains region. Members of the network kept the drugs at a house at Nattanun Home housing estate in Lat Lum Kaeo district.
The gang used a mix of vehicles to deliver drugs to agents at night, according to police.
The investigators later learned that a drug delivery would be made to the house about 11pm on March 24. Police lay in wait and subsequently arrested the six suspects and impounded the drugs found inside the house, and a pickup truck.
All suspects confessed to the charges, according to police, and said they were paid 200,000 baht for each drug delivery they made.
Pol Gen Kitrat said the seized drugs belonged to “Chao Nane’’, a major criminal network that smuggled drugs from the North to inner areas of the country via Kanchanaburi’s Phanom Thuan district. The traffickers had rented the house in Lat Lum Kaeo district of Pathum Thani to store the drugs before delivering them to customers in Bangkok, Ayutthaya and surrounding areas.
All six suspects had been arrested previously on drug charges, according to the acting police chief.
All were charged with colluding in illegal possession of illicit drugs with intent to sell. They were held in police custody for legal action, Pol Gen Kitrat said.
Also at the media briefing were assistant national police chief Pol Gen Samran Nuanma, Metropolitan Police Bureau commissioner Pol Lt Gen Thiti Saengsawang and other senior police.
Police raid a house in Pathum Thani and seize illicit drugs found inside and a pickup truck. Six suspects, right, were also arrested. (Photo: Metropolitan Police Bureau Facebook)