An accused Korean drug smuggler arrested in Pattaya on Monday was found to have overstayed his visa by almost a year.
His apprehension followed arrests in four drug-smuggling cases brought by customs officials in South Korea.
The suspects in those cases, drug couriers, had given up the name of a Korean man in Thailand identified only as Jin, 40, and said they had picked up the drugs in Thailand’s Chon Buri and Samut Prakan provinces.
Investigators in Thailand learned that Mr Jin would go to a Korean restaurant in tambon Na Kluea in Chon Buri’s Bang Lamung district on Monday this week.
They waited for him and arrested the suspect, who was found to have overstayed by nearly one year.
During questioning, Mr Jin allegedly admitted he was an under-boss in a South Korean drug smuggling gang. His job was to supply and transport drugs from Thailand to Korea, using women to hide the drugs in various parts of their body.
Police said the drugs smuggled into Korea would have much higher street value than in Thailand. Crystal meth was worth about 13 million baht per kilogramme there and Ketamine 5.2 million baht per kilogramme.
The investigation was being expanded, police said at a press conference at the Immigration Bureau in Nonthaburi on Tuesday.
Police brief reporters on the case at the Immigration Bureau in Nonthaburi on Tuesday. (Photo: Immigration Bureau Facebook page)
