Three men caught with 200 kilos of weed? But what will happen to them following liberalization

[webfact]

Picture: Siam Rath

 

Siam Rath reported on the arrest of three Thai men who were caught picking up 203 kilos of compressed marijuana at the Mekong River in Bung Kan.

 

But the story - a first of its kind following June 9th - begged the question as to what would happen to the three suspects now that Thailand has let people out of prison and the government are liberalizing many aspects of the weed industry.

 

Picture: Siam Rath

 

Jira, 24, from Bangkok, Racha, also 24 from Nonthaburi and Pongsa, 26, from Udon Thani were arrested by navy personnel who had been tipped off about a delivery from Laos at 5 am.

 

The three suspects had parked their adapted Isuzu by a temple crematorium in Ban Huay Dockmai village and waited.

 

Men arrived in a boat from Laos further upstream and dumped several sacks.

 

The suspects then collected the sacks and have been charged with smuggling and evading duty.

 

This charge can mean jail for up to ten years but also/or entails a fine of four times the value of the goods.

 

Picture: Siam Rath

 

This is being assessed as between 3,500 to 5,000 baht a kilo. 

 

In addition stamp duty of 4.2 baht a kilo and tax to the tune of 7% needs to be paid. 

 

The police said all suspects were given bail in the sum of 150,000 baht each. 

 

One of the suspects said that he was offered to carry the drugs from the border to Nonthaburi by a person he named only as "O".

 

He roped in two buddies for the trip that took them a full day's drive to Bung Kan from Bangkok. They then slept waiting for a phone call that the drugs had arrived.

 

For this they were paid 10,000 baht each, 30,000 baht in total. 

 

-- © Copyright  ASEAN NOW 2022-07-21

 

- Cigna offers a range of visa-compliant plans that meet the minimum requirement of medical treatment, including COVID-19, up to THB 3m. For more information on all expat health insurance plans click here.

 

Monthly car subscription with first-class insurance, 24x7 assistance and more in one price - click here to find out more!

 

Get your business in front of millions of customers who read ASEAN NOW with an interest in Thailand every month - email [email protected] for more information

[Wuvu2]

There are thousands of those gold and orange kilos for sale on Facebook. "Night Fishing" just became a windfall income stream for the Boys in Brown ???? 

 

Edited July 21, 2022 by Wuvu2

[chickenslegs]

Smuggling, evasion of tax/duty.

Similar rules to illegal importation of alcohol.

Just because possession of cannabis is legal now (mostly) doesn't mean it's a free-for-all.

[Pumpuynarak]

45 minutes ago, webfact said:

The suspects then collected the sacks and have been charged with smuggling and evading duty.

 

Quite right imo, they have'nt been charged with possession which would have been the case prior to June 9th.

[starky]

Someone should tell the forum sponsor Prikpot to take note. 3-5000k baht a kilo not 800 baht a gram ????????????????????

[bobbin]

37 minutes ago, starky said:

Someone should tell the forum sponsor Prikpot to take note. 3-5000k baht a kilo not 800 baht a gram ????????????????????

Starky.. you know very well he's not selling to the low-end consumer.

 

Me, I didn't wait 20 years in Thailand to get cheap commercial. It was always cheap (low cost) to me..

 

I want the good stuff!

[worgeordie]

As they are importing the weed ,expect they will end up been charged 

with something, legalization was meant to benefit Thai people ,not

growers in Laos

regards Worgeordie. 

[starky]

8 minutes ago, worgeordie said:

As they are importing the weed ,expect they will end up been charged 

with something, legalization was meant to benefit Thai people ,not

growers in Laos

regards Worgeordie. 

Well the sales will benefit some Thai people. Or would have. ????????????

[Bkk Brian]

3 hours ago, webfact said:

The suspects then collected the sacks and have been charged with smuggling and evading duty.

 

This charge can mean jail for up to ten years but also/or entails a fine of four times the value of the goods.

Lock them up then, since cannabis can be important legally then at least do it legally.

[unblocktheplanet]

9 hours ago, chickenslegs said:

Smuggling, evasion of tax/duty.

Similar rules to illegal importation of alcohol.

Just because possession of cannabis is legal now (mostly) doesn't mean it's a free-for-all.

To bad, eh. I like free-for-all...

[Denim]

Personal use officer. Honestly .  I figured we'd be good to go for a few years and beat inflation ! Profit was the last thing on our minds.

[whaleboneman]

11 hours ago, chickenslegs said:

Smuggling, evasion of tax/duty.

Similar rules to illegal importation of alcohol.

Just because possession of cannabis is legal now (mostly) doesn't mean it's a free-for-all.

The smugglers were not caught. The Thais merely picked up some sacks in Thailand.

[ThaiVisaCentre]

8 hours ago, Bkk Brian said:

Lock them up then, since cannabis can be important legally then at least do it legally.

Far from easy to import legally, and I seriously doubt anyone is legally importing brick weed ????...

 

 

[Bkk Brian]

6 minutes ago, ThaiVisaCentre said:

Far from easy to import legally, and I seriously doubt anyone is legally importing brick weed ????...

 

 

You're probably right so unless you want to take the trouble of going through all the necessary permissions not least of which including 1964 Plant Quarantine Act, plus permission under the 1975 Plants Act, for seeds, then they should probably only consider doing this if they want to take the same risks as the boys above which is not so sensible.

[hotchilli]

20 hours ago, webfact said:

But the story - a first of its kind following June 9th - begged the question as to what would happen to the three suspects now that Thailand has let people out of prison and the government are liberalizing many aspects of the weed industry.

Illegal importing [smuggling] is still an offence.

[herfiehandbag]

Whatever happens to the three occupants of the pick up I am sure the cannabis will be (probably has already been) seemlessly fed into an alternative distribution network.