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Tuesday, March 19, 2024

‘News reporter’ arrested with 180 kg of marijuana in his van

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A man claiming to be a journalist with a Thai newspaper in Bangkok has been arrested after a naval patrol found 180 kilograms of compressed marijuana in his van fitted with a news logo near the Mekong River in the That Phanom district.

A patrol from the Mekong Riverine Unit (MRU) has captured the Kalasin-derived khu. Phattanachai Khamphukaew, arrested along the riverbank in Tambon Phra Klangthung as he loaded bags into his van late Monday night.

The bags were found to contain 180 bars of compressed marijuana, each weighing one kilogram, Captain Rit Nathawong, commander of MRU’s Nakhon Phanom provincial unit, told a media briefing yesterday.

He stated that the 37-year-old man was a bus driver who claimed to work for a newspaper that had an office in Bangkok. He had a reporter’s card and his van with a “news” logo on it.

According to his reporter’s map, he was accredited to a newspaper called Sathon Sangkhom in Bangkok.

During the interrogation, the suspect said he no longer had a job as a bus driver and used this time to transport drugs for someone who paid him 50,000 baht. The drugs were destined for Bangkok.

He said it was his first time doing it, but the officers weren’t convinced, Captain Rit said. The seized drugs were worth about 2 million baht.

More than 2 tons of marijuana have been seized in Nakhon Phanom province in the past month, the captain said.

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