The Malaysian man who was arrested by Thai authorities on Nov 6 with 75kg of ketamine in his car is suspected of acting as a transporter for a cross-border drug syndicate.
Bukit Aman narcotics crime investigation department (NCID) director Hussein Omar Khan said they were informed of the 25-year-old’s arrest by Subdivision 3 of the Thai police’s Narcotics Suppression Bureau (NSB) through official NCID channels.
“The man was arrested on Nov 6 at a roadblock in Chumphon province, where 75kg of ketamine was found in the car he was driving.
“Checks found that the man, who is from the northern region of the country, had a record of four criminal offences,” he said when contacted here today.
Thai media recently reported that a suspect had been detained in an operation by the NSB together with the Chumphon provincial police at a roadblock in Hong Charoen subdistrict, Tha Sae district, Chumphon province in southern Thailand.
At the roadblock, police stopped a back Nissan car with Malaysian registration plates and inspected it with an X-ray machine which revealed a hidden compartment at the back of the vehicle.
Further inspection uncovered vacuum-sealed plastic packages containing 75kg of ketamine, valued at an estimated 70 million baht (about RM9 million), hidden in the secret compartment.
The suspect allegedly admitted to being hired by an unknown individual to drive the car from Bangkok to Malaysia for a payment of RM5,000, but claimed he did not know the vehicle contained illegal substances.
He was arrested for possessing and selling Category 2 psychotropic substances (ketamine) without permission for commercial purposes.
