Four contraband suspects were detained while using drugs to cross the Mekong River.
PUBLISHED: 9 May 2024 at 16: 12
In the Sangkhom city of Nong Khai state, four drug traffickers have been detained, and 1.4 tonnes of cocaine have been seized from a home and a rubber estate.
After an inspection revealed that a large number of smuggled medicines were being kept at a home in the Sangkhom area of the northern county bordering Laos, local officers from the Na Ngiew police station and border police officers were dispatched to Phukhao Thong community in tambon Ban Muang on Wednesday nights.
Four men were discovered by police entering the home carrying cardboard boxes. According to Provincial Police Region 4 commissioner Pol Lt Gen Sarayut Sanguanphokhai, the officers discovered that the 20 cardboard boxes contained heroin.
The four men identified as Niyom, 54, Sarawut, 39, Prasit, 53, and Pratho, 48, were arrested on the spot, said Pol Lt Gen Sarayut. He did not give their surnames.
During questioning, the suspects admitted there was more heroin hidden in a nearby rubber plantation. Nine more cardboard boxes were discovered while officers searched the makeshift shelter there.
A total of 208 packages, containing 1, 404 kilogrammes of heroin, were seized from the 29 boxes, said Pol Lt Gen Sarayut.
The suspects claimed that some Lao nationals traveling by motorboat had delivered the heroin to Phukhao Thong village’s Mekong river bank. The men then delivered the drugs to the house.
All were accused of illegal possession of drugs and the smuggling of Category 1 heroin into the nation. They were taken to the Na Ngiew police station for legal action.
Following the seizure of 20 boxes containing heroin from a house, plainclothes police search a makeshift shelter at a rubber plantation in the Sangkhom district of Nong Khai and discover nine more cardboard boxes. ( Photo supplied/Wassayos Ngamkham )
At the home in the Nong Khai district’s Sangkhom neighborhood, four men are taken into custody. ( Photo supplied/Wassayos Ngamkham )