The Office of Narcotics Control Board (ONCB) today (Oct 26) carried out a new round of drug suppression blitz targeting 79 places across the country, said Wichai Chaimongkol, deputy secretary-general of the anti-drug agency.

The nation-wide blitz followed a meeting of governmental agencies involved in tackling narcotic problem chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwan.  The meeting dealt with mobilization of resources from all relevant agencies to launch a war on drugs.

Of the 79 targets, 59 places are in Bangkok and all of these targets were ones identified in recent complaints received through the NCB’s anti-narcotics hotline No.1386, he said.

The raids began early this morning and in Bangkok the raids were jointly carried out by the Metropolitan Police Bureau and the Patrol and Special Operations Division (PSOD), he said.

One spot raided in Bangkok was a condominium on Soi Nawamin 54 in Bung Kum district where about 3,000 tablets of methamphetamine, some amount of crystal methamphetamine and cannabis were also found packed in 21 pieces of mail and seized for inspection.

Pol Col Samran Nuanma, chief of the PSOD, who led the raid at the condominium, said the drugs seized were linked with a previous arrest on Aug 11 of an 18-year-old man who was caught in action while attempting to have parcels containing narcotics sent at a private-run postal office.

Found inside 23 parcels were 4,000 tablets of methamphetamine and 30g of crystal methamphetamine, Pol Col Samran said, adding that this drug suspect had admitted to having sent more than 1,000 parcels to his customers already.

The suspect was found to be a member of a drug network selling narcotics online and distributing them to customers by mail, he said.