The Thai government spokesman on Monday denied news reports that Indonesia's biggest drug haul, mostly cocaine and worth US$428 million, was found on a Thai vessel.
Spokesman Jirayu Huangsub said that the Thai Maritime Enforcement Command Center had searched databases of Thai vessels and did not find the Aungtoetoe499 boat.
He referred to reports that the Indonesian navy stopped the boat and found 1.9 tonnes of narcotics on board off the Riau Islands on Tuesday last week.
He said that Indonesian media identified it as a Thai vessel and reported that its captain was Thai and four crewmembers were Myanmar nationals. However, they had no identity documents.
According to the government spokesman, the Thai embassy in Jakarta was contacting the Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs to verify if the captain was Thai.
The captain was identified as Baoporn Kingkaew, the spokesman said, but that name was not in the Thai citizen database. A translator said the man had Myanmar parents and lived in the southern Thai province of Ranong.
According to an earlier report, the seized drug consisted of 1.2 tonnes of cocaine and 705 kilogrammes of methamphetamine.