CityNews – A senior Chiang Mai policeman known for his success in busting narcotics gangs has been arrested for trafficking drugs valued at 164 million baht, reports said this week.
The Thailand-Burma bridge in Mae Sai district, where Chamnarn was arrested. Many drugs are smuggled across the border for sale in Thailand.
Pol Lt Col Chamnarn Poompaijit, deputy chief of the Crime Suppression Unit at Chai Prakan police station, was arrested in Chiang Rai’s Mae Sae district on Monday, the Bangkok Post reported.
Officers found 800,000 methamphetamine pills and a kilogramme of crystal methamphetamine in two large suitcases on the back seat of his Toyota Fortuner.
Mae Sai police reportedly put up a checkpoint after receiving an intelligence report that a large amount of drugs would be delivered through the area. Chamnarn – whose vehicle matched the description of the suspect’s – asked officers not to search it, saying he was on a government mission and in a hurry, the Post reported.
Chamnarn made his name as one of the country’s top drug-busters while stationed in Lampang’s Sop Prap district, and regular lectured police officers on how to intercept drug smugglers.
He confessed he had been offered 6 million baht by a Shan gang to deliver the drugs from Mae Sai, where he collected them from a Tesco Lotus hypermarket, to Bangkok. He agreed as he had debts totalling 3 million baht, the report said.
Chamnarn has been temporarily removed from office pending further investigations.