104 Kgs Of Heroine Seized In Phuket

[LaoPo]

104 kgs of heroine seized in Phuket

Police arrested a Thai man and a Taiwanese national along with heroine weighted 104 kilogram in Phuket, a senior police told a press conference Monday.

Phuket native Pongthat Pongthirasakul, 29, and Taiwanese man Kuo Tak Tsai, 42, were arrested along with the 104 kilograms of heroin on Sunday from a house in the Phuket City Home Housing Estate in Muang Phuket, said General Preowpan Damapong.

The arrest followed a tip given early August by the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to Thai police that members of drug dealing gang led by Lan An Lung would bring heroin from the Golden Triangle through Thailand to distribute to Taiwan, Hong Kong, China and other countries.

The Nation HERE

LaoPo

[Guest Reimar]

I'll move this thread to the News Clippings.

///MOVED

[sriracha john]

104 Kgs Of Heroine Seized In Phuket

Nell Wilson recently appeared as a heroine on the Sci-Fi Channel's “Who Want to Be a Superhero?”

[Robski]

That's one fat momma!

104kgs that's a lot of Heroin.

Edited November 10, 2008 by Robski

[LaoPo]

Taiwanese Kuo Te Sai, 42, left, and a Thai man Pongthat Pongthirasakul, 29, are shown at a police news conference in Bangkok, Thailand Monday, Nov. 10, 2008. The two men were arrested in separated raids in Phuket province, southern Thailand and charge on drug trafficking when police found 229 pounds (104 kilograms) of heroin in their houses. (AP Photo)

Thai Deputy Police Chief Gen. Preiwphan Damaphong, right, and U.S. Drug Enforcement official Andre Kellum, 2nd right, pose with uniformed Thai police officers and 261 bars of heroin during a news conference in Bangkok, Thailand Monday, Noiv. 10, 2008. Thai police have arrested and charged Taiwanese Kuo Te Sai and a Thai man Pongthat Pongthirasakul on drug trafficking after police made the raids and found 229 pounds (104 kilograms) of heroin in their houses in Phuket, southern Thailand. (AP Photo)

-AP

LaoPo

[geriatrickid]

Phuket, a transhipment point? Nice publicity for the island.

Anyone else notice the contusions on the Taiwanese chap's face? I wonder if the BiB did that. Accident? Interrogation or angry over not getting a cut?

If guilty, no sympathy from me.

[Scott]

Don't worry about BIB. They probably already got their cut. The amount seized was probably more than that. Actually, these raids probably don't produce anything for them. It sounds pretty high profile.

So, these guys won't have to worry about weathering the economic hard times I guess.

[animatic]

Don't worry about BIB. They probably already got their cut. The amount seized was probably more than that. Actually, these raids probably don't produce anything for them. It sounds pretty high profile.

So, these guys won't have to worry about weathering the economic hard times I guess.

Only need worry about Hard Time in Bangkok Hilton.

hel_l, just shoot me now,

30+ years in that lock up ain't a pretty future.

Good on the BiB to nail these guys.

[Seneque]

Did they need that much to get ready for 'high season' in Phuket ? ...

[sunreader]

"Good on the BiB to nail these guys."

With the all powerfull DEA breathing down their neck they had no choice. (an no skimming off the top allowed either!)

[mackayae]

Is that Frank Lucas in the photo (with the Thai cops)?

[LaoPo]

Massive Drugs Bust on Thailand’s Phuket Island

By SUTIN WANNABOVORN / AP WRITER Tuesday, November 11, 2008

BANGKOK — A Taiwanese drug trafficker was arrested at a Thai beach resort with 229 pounds (104 kilograms) of heroin worth millions of dollars in a joint operation by American, Taiwanese and Thai drug enforcement authorities, officials said on Monday.

Ending a three-month joint investigation, Thai police arrested Kuo Te-tsai, 42, on the southern resort island of Phuket on Sunday, said Lt-Gen Priewphan Damaphong, Thailand's deputy national police chief.

Thai Deputy Police Chief Gen Preiwphan Damaphong, right, and US Drug Enforcement official Andre Kellum, second from right, pose with Thai police officers and 261 bars of heroin at a news conference in Bangkok. (Photo: AP)

Police found 229 pounds (104 kilograms) of heroin pressed into 261 bars and stuffed into cylinders hidden beneath the cement floors of a house Kuo was renting, Priewphan told a news conference. He said police also arrested a Thai accomplice, Phongthat Pongsathirsakul, 29.

The confiscated heroin has a local value of more than 100 million baht ($2.9 million), a Thai police statement said, adding that its street value abroad would be about 10 times that amount, or $29 million.

The US Drug Enforcement Administration had been tracking Kuo and alerted Thai authorities in August that he had entered the country, Priewphan said.

Police moved in to make the arrests on Sunday after receiving information that the heroin would be shipped out of Thailand in the coming days, he said.

"This heroin had come from the Golden Triangle and was going to be shipped to Taiwan before going to markets in Western countries," Priewphan said. The Golden Triangle is a heroin-producing area where the borders of Burma, Laos and Thailand converge.

DEA official Andre W. Kellum said he could not elaborate on the heroin's destination since the investigation was ongoing.

The case is "very significant because a kilo of heroin on the streets of America goes for a great deal of money," he told the news conference.

Drug trafficking in Thailand is punishable by death.

-The Irrawaddy News

LaoPo

[JimmyTheMook]

Quite a good bit of #4 there , bet the DEA agent is pleased to have his pic posted everywhere.

[sriracha john]

bet the DEA agent is pleased to have his pic posted everywhere.

So does Thaksin's brother-in-law... the one that's not Prime Minister.... on the right, Preiwphan Damaphong...perhaps they could ask him in between the photo ops, just when his convicted criminal fugitive of a sister is returning to serve her 3 year prison sentence.

Edited November 11, 2008 by sriracha john

[BSJ]

Seneque: Did they need that much to get ready for 'high season' in Phuket ? ...

Hi dude, was the double entendre intended?

I am guessing 104kg is a little to much to claim personal use only, right!

[animatic]

bet the DEA agent is pleased to have his pic posted everywhere.

So does Thaksin's brother-in-law... the one that's not Prime Minister.... on the right, Preiwphan Damaphong...perhaps they could ask him in between the photo ops, just when his convicted criminal fugitive of a sister is returning to serve her 3 year prison sentence.

These guys are district chiefs, bureaucrats etc. and certainly not street players.

Somebody has to be the public face of DEA in various regions.

Damaphong is trying to look law and order, since the rest of the family ain't.

Edited November 11, 2008 by animatic