Senator Upakit Pachariyangkun was formally indicted today on narcotics trafficking, money laundering and association with a transnational criminal organisation charges.

The senator has denied all the charges and applied for bail, by placing five million baht in cash as a surety. The court is yet to decide whether to grant bail.

Prayut Petchkun, spokesman for the Office of the Attorney-General, said that Senator Upakit’s case will be separately tried from the case of his Burmese business associate, Tun Min Latt, who was arrested in Thailand in August last year and who is currently on trial on similar charges. Also arrested was Dean Young Gultula, Upakit’s son-in-law.

Earlier this month, the Office of the Narcotics Control Board froze assets worth 400-million baht belonging to Upakit, on suspicion that they were ill-gotten gains linked to illegal business.

Upakit and Tun Min Latt founded the Myanmar Allure Group in 2000, to operate an illegal casino in Myanmar’s Tachileik township, opposite Thailand’s Chiang Rai province. The senator resigned from the board of Myanmar Allure in 2019 and sold his stake in order to join the Senate.