BKK Post, March 2, 1998 NARCOTICS

[burma@xxxxxxxxxx]

March 2, 1998
NARCOTICS

Eight held in drug bust
Theerawat Khamthita 
Chiang Rai

Eight people were arrested and over 90,000 amphetamine pills were seized 
in four different raids by police in Mae Sai and Mae Chan districts on 
Saturday.

In the first raid, Mae Sai district police arrested Suwatchai 
Tancharoen, 32, who claimed to be a relative of Thai Party MP from 
Chachoengsao Suchart Tancharoen, at a bus terminal.

Suwatchai, of Samut Prakan, said he was hired for 20,000 baht by a man 
called Ord to deliver 59,000 speed pills from Mae Sai to Bangkok.

Also in Mae Sai, police searched two men and two women at a border 
checkpoint and found 6,000 amphetamine pills on one of them. They 
confessed that they intended to sell the drug in Ratchaburi.

In Mae Chan district, a Burmese novice identified as Jai was arrested 
with 20,000 speed pills by police while conducting a search on a bus 
plying between Mae Sai and Mae Chan.

Jai said he was from Kengtung in Burma and was hired by a man in 
Tachilek for 60,000 baht to deliver the pills to Chiang Rai.

The same team of police later found another 6,000 amphetamine pills 
while searching a tour bus and arrested two men identified as Ekachai 
Sinsabai, 19, and Suthat Srisawat, 22, of Samut Prakan.

They said they were hired by a man in Mae Sai for 30,000 baht to take 
the drug to Bangkok.

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