BANGKOK — The Airport Interdiction Task Force (AITF) arrested 4 Hong Kong nationals and seized 40 bars of heroin weighing 14 kilograms, hidden in a luggage at Suvarnabhumi Airport.
On June 24, Police Lieutenant General Phanurat Lakboon, Secretary-General of the Office of Narcotics Control Board (ONCB), along with Prin Mekanant, Director of the Narcotics Suppression Bureau, announced the arrest of an international drug trafficking network at the ONCB Operations Center in Bangkok.
The arrest of the 4 Hong Kong male suspects came after ONCB officials received information and conducted a joint investigation with Hong Kong police to track Leung Wai Kit, a major Hong Kong drug dealer who traveled to Thailand, along with Chun He Chow, a drug courier who also traveled to Thailand.
The AITF closely investigated these individuals. On Sunday, June 23, Leung and one associate entered Suvarnabhumi Airport with luggage believed to contain hidden drugs, preparing to hand it over to two other couriers. Officials immediately searched and detained these individuals.
The search uncovered 40 bars of heroin weighing 14 kilograms hidden in the luggage. Leung and his three associates were arrested and charged with “jointly attempting to export a Category 1 narcotic (heroin) without permission and jointly possessing a Category 1 narcotic (heroin) without permission.”
Pol. Lt. Gen. Phanurat said this case was unusual because drug trafficking networks typically hide contraband in parcels, rarely concealing it in luggage to be loaded onto airline check-in conveyor belts.
Prin added that airlines or security teams usually focus X-ray checks on explosives and firearms. Therefore, hiding heroin in milk crates and loading them onto conveyor belts, being non-metallic objects, likely allowed them to pass through the X-ray machines at check-in points.
The investigation revealed that the suspects traveled to Thailand to receive heroin from Hong Kong couriers in Thailand and sell it to buyers in Hong Kong. Officials discovered that the Hong Kong mastermind stayed at one hotel in Thailand, while the Hong Kong courier stayed at another. On Sunday, June 23, they all checked out and headed to Suvarnabhumi Airport, where they were arrested.
This week, Hong Kong police will travel to Thailand to question the four suspects to expand the investigation into networks in Hong Kong and possibly additional networks in Thailand.
Phantong Loykulnanta, Tax Collection Development and Management Advisor at the Customs Department, said that although luggage loaded onto conveyor belts at check-in points goes through color X-ray machines to detect anomalies, items can still slip through. The Customs Department will review lessons learned from this incident.
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