Thai police admit 'giant' drug bust barely found a gram of ketamine

[webfact]

Thai police admit 'giant' drug bust barely found a gram of ketamine

 

Officials view the seized 11.5 tonnes of ketamine, in the country's largest seizure ever, worth nearly 30 billion baht (~$991 million USD) at a warehouse in Chachoengsao, Thailand, November 12, 2020. Office of the Narcotics Control Board/Handout via REUTERS

 

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thai authorities said on Tuesday that barely more than one gram (0.04 oz) of ketamine had been found in a seizure that police had initially believed contained over 12 tonnes of the drug worth almost $1 billion.

 

Wichai Chaimongkol, head of the Narcotics Control Board, told a news conference 12.1 tonnes of the haul contained trisodium phosphate - a chemical which can be used as a food additive and cleaning agent.

 

The remaining 301 kg was calcium carbonate and just 1.2 grams of ketamine, he said, adding the seizure was made as part of an international investigation following arrests in Taiwan.

 

In November, Thai police announced what they thought was the country's largest ketamine drug bust and said it pointed to a multinational drug network..

 

But authorities later said tests had not shown up drugs and that trisodium phosphate reacted in the same way as ketamine by turning purple in tests.

 

In medicine, ketamine is used as an anaesthetic or an anti-depressant, but as a recreational drug it is used to induce dreamy or trance-like sensations, and sometimes hallucinations.

 

(Reporting by Panarat Thepgumpanat; Writing by Chayut Setboonsarng; Editing by Ed Davies and Michael Perry)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-12-15

 

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[JoePai]

Idiots

[internationalism]

Already sold at wholesale price $60k per kg to domectic and international dealers, and everybody, down to school kids on the playground, are happy. 
Nobody will ever knew the true story about 1.4g keta, which misteriously appeared on an industrial warehouse in one of the 50kg bags

Edited December 15, 2020 by internationalism

[RobertHima]

If only they had a GT200 substance detector..

[bluesofa]

1 hour ago, RobertHima said:

If only they had a GT200 substance detector..

I would never suggest that a GT200 lie detector would be more useful.

[klauskunkel]

18 hours ago, webfact said:

Thai police admit 'giant' drug bust barely found a gram of ketamine

It is a fine art to appear stupid and it is mostly used by authorities to cover up their own crimes, ...but I'm sure that's not the case here... 

[digger70]

20 hours ago, webfact said:

Thai police admit 'giant' drug bust barely found a gram of ketamine

One might think that they would test the product before Mouthing of about a So Called Drug Bust,

They suppose to do that Avery/ Anytime .

[PETERTHEEATER]

23 hours ago, webfact said:

it is used to induce dreamy or trance-like sensations, and sometimes hallucinations.

 

Now that explains the recent rash of statements attributed to government ministers.

[ronaldo0]

So one of the delivery drivers had the ketamine ? ???? All 1.4g of it ????

[worgeordie]

On 12/15/2020 at 2:36 PM, webfact said:

a chemical which can be used as a food additive and cleaning agent.

 

Both ?

regards worgeordie

[onebir]

On 12/15/2020 at 9:36 AM, webfact said:

But authorities later said tests had not shown up drugs and that trisodium phosphate reacted in the same way as ketamine by turning purple in tests.

Next up: "PD posts vacancy for analytical chemist"

[mbenson]

I guess it would be prudent to rely on something more than a field test before making the announcement of a record-breaking drug post that gets international coverage.

[RichardColeman]

43 minutes ago, mbenson said:

I guess it would be prudent to rely on something more than a field test before making the announcement of a record-breaking drug post that gets international coverage.

Agreed, though I am pretty sure an announcement of the forthcoming Thai rocket to the moon has already arrived, returned and the street parade planned

[Susco]

First of all, I don't believe they tested 12.1 tonnes gram per gram.

 

Secondly, if they found 1.2 gram of ketamine, that mean the ketamine was either there and removed before they raided the warehouse, or it disappeared after the raid.

 

Ketamine is not something that you will find randomly in other warehouses or factories.

Edited December 16, 2020 by Susco

[bluebluewater]

Yes indeed - it's easy to believe that they will be able to build and launch their own spacecraft.

[mikebell]

Wanted; Highly skilled scientists to join Thailand's budding space programme.

[bluesofa]

16 minutes ago, mikebell said:

Wanted; Highly skilled scientists to join Thailand's budding space programme.

Must have experience of vertical marketing.

 

[Iron Tongue]

Didn't you read the news about how Thailand is building a rocket to send astronauts to the sun?  They plan to land at night!

[tinca tinca]

what a waste of time......when time should have been spent catching M/B riders with NO HELMETS.....but if the drivers/passengers were wearing a mask then it would need police action !!!

[ChipButty]

Who will be held accountable? I guess nobody it's an honest mistake