Thai police release potential heroin-syndicate suspect

By Indonesia correspondent Tim Palmer

A potentially key suspect in the investigation of the heroin syndicate that planned to export drugs from Bali to Australia is again a fugitive after Thai police arrested and then released her.

The ABC has learnt that the Thai woman, believed to be in her early 20s, is mentioned in the casefile of at least one of the Bali Nine suspects.

She was potentially a very important witness for police forces, including the Australian Federal Police (AFP), hoping to work their way back up the syndicate.

For a while, regional police cooperation in the crime seemed to have scored a success as the potential witness tried to re-enter Thailand from Malaysia, Thai police arrested the young woman.

However Thai police say Indonesian investigators dispatched to pick the woman up lacked the proper extradition documentation.

There are suggestions elsewhere that another explanation of what happened next may involve police misconduct.

Thai police simply set the key suspect free.

AFP Commissioner Mick Keelty says the loss of a potential link to the Mr Big of the drug syndicate is unfortunate, but he cannot say there was any misconduct involved.

"The fact that the Royal Thai Police did, in their view, not have sufficient evidence at the time to maintain her detention or to work with the Indonesians to extradite her back to Indonesia, I think it's unfortunate," he said.

"But, you know, we can't stand here and point with the finger and say, you know, something went wrong there - we have to say well, that's what the law is."

I wonder if any money changed hands?

Your a cynical man Tornado, how dare you suggest money would effect the course of justice.

I wonder if any money changed hands? 

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The cashier's cheque cleared