Anti-narcotics police have confiscated about 1.65 tonnes of cotton bales impregnated with crystal methamphetamine (Ice) from a warehouse in the Rat Burana district of Bangkok. Five people, including a woman who rented the warehouse, have been arrested.
Parin Mekhanan, director of suppression at the Office of Narcotics Control Board (ONCB), told the media that the 33 bales of cotton weighed about 1.65 tonnes.
They originated in an African country and were destined for India. They were denied entry, so the sender contacted a Thai woman in Bangkok to arrange for the bales to be stored before shipping to another country.
The woman, who was not identified by the police, rented an empty warehouse in which to store the cotton bales. She was arrested last week at the Queen Sirikit Convention Centre in Khlong Toei district.
Pol Lt-Col Phanurat Lukboon, ONCB Secretary-General
ONCB Secretary-General Pol Lt-Col Phanurat Lukboon told AFP, "It is the first time we have seized such a large quantity of methamphetamine."
that, in December, they had received intelligence from the Royal Thai Navy about an African drug trafficking gang using cotton bales in which to smuggle illegal narcotics from Africa to third countries, using Thailand as a transit point.
He admitted that the drug, impregnated into the cotton, could not be seen with the naked eye.
