Millions in assets linked to drug gang

Piyanuch Thamnukasetchai

The Nation on Sunday

BANGKOK:-- The Department of Special Investigations (DSI) has detected assets worth Bt100 million linked to a suspected drug-trafficking ring in follow-up work with the Office of Narcotics Control Board (ONCB) after a recent search at Rayong Provincial Prison, the DSI's chief of operations in the Eastern region said yesterday.

DSI officials had sought search warrants for 22 targeted locations and arrest warrants for six suspects and prepared a combined unit to search the sites, according to Pravit Chaibuadaeng. He said they expect the DSI would be able to seize an even bigger sum - possibly Bt300 million worth of assets allegedly acquired by the drug network.

Corrections Department chief Suchat Wong-anantachai reported yesterday that the shifting of about 300 drug inmates from jails around the country, including 80 from Songkhla Prison, to Ratchaburi's Khao Bin Prison had gone well.

The department would take some time to assess the efficiency of a system to block cell-phones to prevent inmates communicating with outsiders and organising drug deals. He said all prisons were instructed to strictly conduct unannounced searches of cells for prohibited items especially phones. Khao Bin was very strict and the latest search found only one phone. By comparison, about 100 phones had been found in the last search at Bang Kwang Central Prison in Nonthaburi, he added.

In regard to a suggestion by Public Sector Anti-Corruption Commission secretary-general Dusadee Arayawuth that guards be made to undergo lie detector tests and urine tests for substance abuse at targeted prisons, Suchat said the matter was sensitive and might affect the morale of decent officials. So, these things would not be done at random - they would be based on intelligence and conducted on individuals who behaved in a suspicious way, such as spending beyond their means.

In related news, police on Friday night arrested a female retired colonel, Atcharaporn Tipayanont, 56, at her home in Udon Thani's Muang district, along with 490 'ya ba' tablets, Bt108,700 in cash, 200 plastic bags for retailing 'ya ba', and three cell-phones. Three men and two women who were taking 'ya ba' there were also arrested.

Atcharaporn allegedly confessed to police that the 'ya ba' and cash were hers. She claimed she did not sell drugs but only gave the 'ya ba' to some relatives to consume while playing cards. She said she got the drug for free from a former supervisor in Lop Buri.

-- The Nation 2012-02-12

The last National Police Chief was fired because he didn't fix the drug problem.

Seems to me that the person at the top of the corrections department should also be fired.

Some how I find it hard to believe that they don't want to offend honest guards.

I would think that tests on all guards would be welcome by honest guards so there would be no suspicion about them.

Then again they might feel they have lost face by proving their honesty.

Very strange how they concentrate on the drugs in prison recently, after all this is the one place where drugs are available in most countries of the world. And still no mention of the involvement in drug trafficking of the regular police. Wonder how many police men would not 'behave in a suspicious way, such as spending beyond their means'.

It is not the inmates who bring in all that stuff, right? So where is the punishment for the dealers of the dealers?

It is not the inmates who bring in all that stuff, right? So where is the punishment for the dealers of the dealers?

I think a lot of it comes in during visiting time. I have seen people passing money out of prison and other objects going in when I go to visit my friend in IDC regularly. Like why would money ever come out? Because they are doing illegal stuff whether gambling or selling drugs. My friend told me they buy the drugs on the outside for 200-1000 baht and sell it for well over 10,000 baht for the same value. So it is a big business.

The guard obviously do not know, or are turning a blind eye to it. They generally seem very professional (as in massive dicks, like you would assume for a prison guard) to me. They always seemed to be very strict and follow their jobs very well.

There are the IDC volunteers (prisoners who help inside with random jobs, and are allowed outside the walls) they are corrupt as all hell, they have stolen over 80,000 baht from my friend so far in apparently bid to aid his release, he gives them the money they never come back to work... We reported this to the guards who actually told him to deal with this guy, and they said it happens and mai pen rai basically. They want him to buy a ticket home, but so far every baht he has had sent by his family has been stolen by someone or other, even a Thai lawyer he hired to help him simply took his money and didn't come back.