Police Sting Operation Uncovers Khmer Drug Ring Trafficking Yah Bah Into Thailand

May 20, 2008
Pattaya Daily News (Thailand)

A Khmer drug trafficker was caught in an undercover police sting operation, on May 19, 2008, trying to sell 1,000 tabs of Yah Bah, (amphetamine) in Bang Saray. The trafficker was part of a well-established drugs ring with headquarters in Siam Reap, Cambodia and used the border crossing of Baan Laem to get the drugs into Thailand.

The police sting team led by a number of high-ranking officials, including , Pol.Col.Kittiphong Gnao-muk, deputy commander and chief of investigation centre section #2, Pol.Col. Itthiporn Bpo-thong, superintendent section #2, Capt. Chachawan Meesawad, Capt.Siriphan Meelaksan and Capt.Samorabpum Jantho, from the Navy drugs suppression team, along with a military police investigator, set up the Khmer front-man, Mr.Chead, promising to buy the Yah Bah at Bt160 a tablet, with a street retail value of somewhere in the region of Bt160,000. The rendezvous was outside Bangsaray Seafood Restaurant, Moo 4, Bangsaray.

Mr.Chead's controller was an individual by the name of Mr.Li Chea, nicknamed Da (32) from Ji-Klang, Siam Reap province, Cambodia. Following the arrangement to buy the drugs with the undercover police, Mr.Chead contacted Mr.Da to deliver the consignment to the rendezvous.

The police sting team laid in wait for the dealer to arrive and when he did swooped down and arrested him with the incriminating evidence. He later told police that it was a well set up operation where smugglers regularly hid the drugs up their rectums in order to get across the border at Baan Laem, Pong-namron district, Chantaburi province. The six-man trafficking team was subsequently picked up by a blue car and then dropped off individually en route at stipulated drop zones.

Police charged Mr. Da on the double count of smuggling illicit, category 1, drugs, into Thailand to sell and having entered the country illegally.

Source of Methamphetamine drug seized in Bangkok points to Cambodia?

Police arrest female drug trafficker

TNA (Thailand)

Police here have arrested a female drug trafficker and seized 160,000 methamphetamine pills and 145 grammes of so-called 'ice' crystal methamphetamine valued at nearly 50 million baht from her apartment, police said.

Bangkok police chief Pol. Lt-Gen. Adisorn Nonsi told a press conference that plainclothes policemen had contacted 35-year-old Varisra Larpcharoen to buy 30 grammes of crystal methamphetamine hydrochloride, the drug also known popularly as 'ice'.

She was apprehended after meeting the plainclothes police officers at a parking lot of a shopping mall.

Police later took Miss Varisra to her apartment on the outskirts of Bangkok and found quantities of speed pills hidden in boxes and ice in a wardrobe. The seized drugs were estimated at being worth nearly 50 million baht on the street.

Miss Varisra reportedly told police that she received the methamphetamine, commonly called yaa baa, from a man identified only as 'Mr. O' but she had never met him because the drug would be sent to her by his agent. She said she bought the drug from another agent at the Thai-Cambodian border district of Aranyaprathet.

Gen Adisorn said the woman had been selling drugs in Bangkok's slum areas since 1996 and not for only two years as she had claimed, but that she had moved on after her former accomplices were killed or arrested.

Miss Varisra is charged with possession of illegal drugs and trafficking. In the meantime, the police said they were looking for the otherwise unidentified dealer known as 'Mr. O'.

Thailand: Yah Bah scourge in Pattaya was ordered from Cambodia

Chicken Merchant Arrested For Dealing In Yah Bah

August 22, 2007
Pattaya Daily News (Thailand)

Pattaya police arrested a chicken merchant from Rayong Province for dealing in Yah Bah. The illicit drugs were ordered from Cambodia to be distributed in Rayong Province and Pattaya City. Police confiscated the Yah Bah and a gun.

On 22 August 2007, at 3 AM, Police Lieutenant Colonel. Santi Chainiranam, of the Pattaya Police, and a team of officers, arrested a Yah Bah dealer, and then extended the investigation by having the dealer order Yah Bah from Mr. Dul, a Yah Bah agent. They arranged for 350 tablets of Yah Bah to be delivered to Forte Karaoke car park, on North Pattaya Third Road, where police waited to make arrests.

At the time of the delivery, a bronze Toyota Hilux Vigo, license 2689 Rayong, with a motorbike on the back of the truck, covered with cloth, drove into the car park. Police recognized the truck as their target. The truck was driven by a man with a female passenger. Police immediately arrested them as they emerged from the truck. The driver was Mr. Adul Kajornpreedasak, Nickname "Dul" (28), living at 78/13 Moo 2, Namkrok, Mueng, Rayong Province and Miss Goi (Alias) (26), his girl friend.

Police searched the truck and found two bags of Yah Bah, totaling 350 tablets, hidden under the driver’s seat;, and a Noringo nine mm gun, with three bullets. Police confiscated all evidence, including the truck and the motorbike on the back, for further investigation.

Mr. Adul confessed that had been a Yah Bah dealer for a long time. He was arrested two times in the past. When not dealing drugs, he works as a chicken merchant in Rayong Market. He would order the illicit drugs from Khmer people to distribute to customers in both Rayong Province and Pattaya city. Mr. Adul claimed that his girlfriend had nothing to do with the Yah Bah dealing. He said that she merely accompanied him to Pattaya. The police arrested both of them and will investigate further to try and rid the city of this terrible Yah Bah scourge.