Tipoff leads to drug arrests at Suvarnabhumi

Acting on anonymous information, Thai customs officials held two male Pakistani nationals at Suvarnabhumi International Airport, last Monday.

Iqeal Muhammad Abid, 44, and 46-year-old Ahmed Sted Asad were detained while they were waiting for a domestic flight to Phuket.  An initial search of the men and their belongings revealed no drugs.

Subsequent x-rays of the men’s stomachs revealed suspicious packages. After laxatives had been given, these turned out to contain 1.4kgs of heroin. The value of the Class A narcotic has been estimated at nearly five million Baht.

Thai authorities said that they had been informed by an unknown source that two men would be travelling from Karachi with drugs for the Thai market.

The two later told officials, that before their arrest, they had smuggled heroin into the kingdom at least 10 times previously. They added that for each trip they were paid US$1,000. The two Pakistanis declined to name either the name of the agent who organised their trips or who the heroin was destined for.

The Thai Narcotics Suppression Bureau has now taken custody of the pair, and is expected to delve deeper into the drug network that the mules were undoubtedly a part of.

Drug smugglers are regularly apprehended by police and customs officers. Narcotics seized at the time of arrest are held by authorities until the courts have dealt with the cases involved, and then destroyed.

On Friday, Thai Public Health Minister, Mr Jurin Laksanawisit oversaw the destruction of a massive haul of confiscated drugs at a facility at the Bang Pa-In Industrial Estate, north of Bangkok.