Heroin worth 100 million Baht seized in Chiang Mai, 1 arrested
Kwaang Siripoom



CHIANG MAI:-- Police have arrested a man after more than 21 kilograms of heroin worth an estimated 100 million baht was seized in the Mae Rim and Sansai districts of Chiang Mai.

On Tuesday, Pol. Lt. Gen. Thanitsak Theerasawas confirmed the arrest of Mr. Pattanapong Chanpood, 30, from Surat Thani province following an ongoing police investigation into narcotic gangs operating in northern Thailand.

Mr Pattanapong had been known to police for some time when they received a report that he had hired a forklift truck which he was planning to use to remove his broken down car from the side of the road close to the Holiday Resort in Sansai, Chiang Mai.

Upon searching the broken down Nissan Teana, officers found 14.350 kilograms of heroin inside 41 separate bags stashed inside the back bumper.

While officers were searching the vehicle they received more information that Pattanapong was about board a flight from Chiang Mai airport to Surat Thani and was promptly detained by officers at the airport.

Officers later searched a house in Mae Rim where Pattapong was known to have stayed and discovered a further 6.6 kilograms of heroin inside 19 bags hidden in the ceiling of the 3rd floor.

Pattapong allegedly confessed to the police this is the second time he has done this and he has no idea what is inside the white bags being hidden in the car. As far as he knows he is just told to hire a fork lift truck and transport the car to Samut Sakorn where he is then paid 250,000 Baht per trip.

Despite Pattanpong’s confession, police are working to identify others involved in what they say is a large scale narcotics operation. Pol. Maj. Gen. Montree Samboonyanon reportedly told the reporters the heroin was produced in the area populated by the Muser tribe along Thai border.

Source: Thairath


-- 2016-03-10

Many police will be high tonight.

Heroin is a curse , you dont get high you get numb, these people need the death sentence.

Always the mules, never Mr Big.

@shirtless

Who are you to judge?

Must be some great caches of gold up there in them Hill Tribe villages

Karma, that the car broke down, surely they mean tow truck,

not fork lift, to remove the car from the side of the road.

regards Worgeordie

As a taxpayer, I should complain that there has been only 1 arrest.... clearly the broken down car was not provided by Mr Big!!

Claims he didn't know what was in the bags but was being paid 250,000 to deliver them. Ok then.

I hope they catch the whole gang including Mr Big and Hang them all. An example needs to be made of these vile greedy scum drug dealers. JUDGEMENT MADE! JUSTICE DONE!

Follow the money, it is being laundered somewhere?

@shirtless

Who are you to judge?

Maybe you condone it but most right thinking people do not. Try it in Malaysia and see how far you get. Have you not considered the untold misery drugs cause not just to the user but the families of users and the public?

An off topic post of a conspiratorial nature has been removed, this is not about Afghanistan, the CIA or the USA.

Claims he didn't know what was in the bags but was being paid 250,000 to deliver them. Ok then.

Let me guess it wasn't rice. The RTP should take him to the safe house, and obtain the whereabouts of his paymaster, and move up the line to the mafia top. Which won't happen, naturally.

So we can expect a drug gang arrest any day now...........all the way up to Mr Big?

The police need to be careful with their investigations into narcotics so as not to cause damage to the good name of their clearly innocent superiors.

Claims he didn't know what was in the bags but was being paid 250,000 to deliver them. Ok then.

Let me guess it wasn't rice. The RTP should take him to the safe house, and obtain the whereabouts of his paymaster, and move up the line to the mafia top. Which won't happen, naturally.

The RTP should take him to the safe house, and obtain the whereabouts of his paymaster

...and lose face when Mr. Bigwig shows up and orders them to stay put behind the red line?

So this dumb drug dealer guy is trying to move nearly 15 ton with a pick up truck? 100 millions worth

of merchandize and he go cheap on the transport? or his brain is already too cocked to realize that

a pick up can't haul 15 tones on a hilly terrains?.....

So this dumb drug dealer guy is trying to move nearly 15 ton with a pick up truck? 100 millions worth

of merchandize and he go cheap on the transport? or his brain is already too cocked to realize that

a pick up can't haul 15 tones on a hilly terrains?.....

I think it was nearly 15 kg, not tons.

And it was a Nissan sedan that broke down.

Apart from that, you were spot on

1 arrested??

With these amounts there is many more involved..... so why only 1 arrested?

So this dumb drug dealer guy is trying to move nearly 15 ton with a pick up truck? 100 millions worth

of merchandize and he go cheap on the transport? or his brain is already too cocked to realize that

a pick up can't haul 15 tones on a hilly terrains?.....

14.350 kilos, not 14,350 kilos. A period not a coma.

 

Always the mules, never Mr Big.

 

Of course not...How can the mafia in conjunction with gov't make money?...the perception of the "fight/war" on crime has to be purveyed for public consumption.

Do they still execute major heroin traffickers? If not, then I can understand why they are operating here instead of say, Indonesia.

From my research into drugs in SE Asia;

Ex Mr Big, Khan Sa and his Army, led all the supply, and manufacturing from the Northern Burma/Myanmar states. Whilst he is now dead, his family continue on. His sister, just a few years ago, was found with millions of USD$$ in her suitcase by authorities in Singapore, freed to go as her well played lawyers argued it was funds raised to support opposition to illegal armies in Burma. His brother, based in these northern states, runs massive sweat shops and people smuggling on the Thai/Burma boarder.These are just two of an army of thousands. Thai authorities, with assistance from US/UK/Aussie personnel are unable to enter these areas to get not Mr Big, but the Mr Big Army.

Even China, and others in SE Asia, would love to stop them, as they like Thailand are used as distribution, not production, countries for heroin, amphetamines (ya ba) and crystal methamphetamines (ya ice).

No easy task.

Well done Thailand for continuing to make an ass of yourself and bringing your reputation into disrepute.

Since, Thailand, you are not aware: these photo opportunities for your inept and almost useless police force show the rest of the world you cannot or will not arrest those responsible for the drugs haul, instead you only arrest unimportant individuals which makes no real progress at all.

Yes, it's good that more heroin is off the streets, but it's not good you leave those responsible free to produce more.

Nobody with any intelligence is fooled that one arrested individual of no importance to organized crime is anything noteworthy.

Thailand, aren't you tired - and more importantly, embarrassed - by everyone else knowing you are so stupid and incompetent?

No, because the truth is you, Thailand, are profiting from the drug trade and you are not serious about catching those who are truly responsible for this haul of heroin.