Police colonel caught smuggling drugs

19 สิงหาคม 2557

High-ranking police officer with outstanding drug-busting record arrested for smuggling 160 million baht of methamphetamines, receiving 6 million baht in exchange.

The suitcases filled with drugs found in Pol Lt Col Chamnarn's Toyota Fortuner. (Photos by Cheewin Sattha)

CRIME

Drug buster nabbed for smuggling drugs

18/08/2014
Chewin Sattha and online reporters

CHIANG RAI — A police officer with an outstanding drug-busting record has been arrested for smuggling more than 160 million baht worth of methamphetamine pills and crystal methamphetamine.

Pol Lt Col Chamnarn Poompaijit, deputy chief of Chai Prakan police station's crime suppression unit in Chiang Mai, was apprehended at a police checkpoint in Chiang Rai's Mae Sai district on Monday morning after a search of his Toyota Fortuner found 800,000 meth pills and a kilogramme of crystal meth in two large suitcases on the vehicle's back seat.

The street price of the drugs was estimated to be 164 million baht.

Mae Sai police said they erected a checkpoint after receiving an intelligence report that a drug gang would deliver a large number of drugs through the area under their supervision. The description of the suspect's vehicle matched that of Pol Lt Col Chamnarn.

He was initially charged with possession of Type-1 drugs.

Pol Lt Col Chamnarn Poompaijit

They said the drug buster-turned-smuggler suspect tried to tell his colleagues at the checkpoint that he was in a hurry on a government mission and asked to be spared the search for illegal items.

Pol Lt Col Chamnarn has been known as one of the country's top drug busters. He made his name when he was stationed in Sop Prap district of Lampang province and led operations to arrest many drug traffickers of several rings.

Due to his outstanding performance, he was later transferred to Chiang Mai's Chai Prakan district to help intercept the smuggling of illicit drugs from Muang Yon on the Myanmar side of the border.

He regularly gave lectures on how to erect checkpoints and intercept drug smuggling to police officers under the Provincial Police Region 5.

Pol Lt Col Chamnarn confessed he had been offered 6 million baht in exchange for delivering the drugs for a gang of ethnic Tai Yai.

He took the offer because he had debts worth three million baht to settle. They consisted of loans borrowed from police cooperatives and monthly instalments for two houses.

The officer said he collected the drugs from Tesco Lotus hypermarket in Mae Sai to deliver them to Bangkok.

Police Region 2 deputy chief Pol Maj Gen Damrongsak Kittiprapas temporarily removed Pol Lt Col Chamnarn from office pending further investigations into the case to identify more people involved in his drug network.

He said the police would hold a press conference on Pol Lt Col Chamnarn's case on Tuesday.

http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/crimes/427427/drug-buster-nabbed-for-smuggling-drugs