A Myanmar tycoon suspected of drug trafficking who else reportedly has close up links to the upper echelons of Myanmar’s ruling military junta was detained in Bangkok yesterday, local authorities said.
Tun Min Latt, 53, was arrested in a dawn raid last week along with 3 Thai nationals on charges of conspiracy to traffic drugs and money laundering, said deputy police spokesperson Kissana Phathanacharoen.
“Police are in the process of requesting the court designed for pre-trial detention, inch Pol Col Kissana said by telephone.
The police source on the Immigration Bureau informed the Bangkok Post that he acquired yet to obtain the record from the arresting unit. All foreigners imprisoned in the country must be reported to the bureau.
The source stated last week that certain authorities had repeatedly mentioned the status of Tun Min Latt in Thailand just before his arrest.
Three resources with knowledge of the situation said that Tun Minutes Latt, who has business interests in hotels, energy and exploration, is a close relate of Myanmar zirkel leader Min Aung Hlaing and has procured supplies for the country’s military.
British authorities approved one of Tun Min Latt’s businesses within August in what these people called an “effort to limit the particular military’s access to hands and revenue”.
Myanmar state media have released pictures of the tycoon with the junta innovator, including at an hands fair in Bangkok in 2019.
A 2019 UN document says Tun Min Latt is the son of the retired Myanmar lieutenant colonel and that a business he partly possesses made donations amounting to about US$71, 500 (2. sixty six million baht) towards the Myanmar military within 2017.
Pol Col Kissana said the police anti-drugs unit had requested a court to increase the suspects’ detention to gather more evidence and investigate the network. He said police also confiscated assets worth more than 200 million baht from the four suspects.
Myanmar’s military seized energy from the democratically chosen government led by Aung San Suu Kyi in Feb 2021.
A source with knowledge of Tun Min Latt’s case who asked to remain anonymous mentioned his arrest is certainly part of a wider Thai crackdown upon money laundering from narcotics in the boundary town of Tachileik in Myanmar’s Shan state.