Thai authorities nab Myanmar drug smuggler, phone scam gang

BANGKOK, June 21 (TNA) - Thai anti-narcotic authorities have sent a Myanmar drug smuggler to Myanmar police, while nailing 15 Thai nationals who joined a phone scam gang of Taiwanese people. Police General Pongsapat Pongcharoen, Secretary-General of Thailand's Office of the Narcotics Control Board (ONCB), told journalists on Friday that his subordinates arrested the 46-year-old Myanmar drug smuggler, identified as U Shwe Nu, who was wanted under an arrest warrant of Myanmar police. Police General Pongsapat said the ONCB had traced drug-trafficking in Bangkok for over a year and found that U Shwe Nu headed a drug-trafficking ring which had supplied methamphetamine from the ethnic group of Lieutenant Colonel Yi Se in Myanmar's Shan State and retailed the drug to Myanmar people in Thailand. The ONCB chief acknowledged that U Shwe Nu had smuggled hundreds of thousands of methamphetamine pills into Thailand at a time both on land and by air, and that the suspect had repeated his visits to Thailand for 19 times over the past three years, with his last arrival reported on July 10, 2012, staying at an apartment in Bangkok before he was caught on June 2. Thai police interrogated the Myanmar suspect and are hunting for eight accomplices who sold the illicit drug to Myanmar people in Bangkok's suburban Samut Sakhon and Samut Prakan provinces. The ONCB chief handed the Myanmar drug suspect to Myanmar police officers on Friday, when Thai authorities also asked the Myanmar police to send the suspect back to Thailand for prosecution after the suspect serves his term in Myanmar. Meanwhile, the Royal Thai Police's Economic Crime Division nailed 15 Thai people who joined a phone scam gang of Taiwanese people and damaged Thai victims for more than 20 million baht. Chinese authorities had arrested the accused Thais in China's Guangzhou City for joining phone fraud there, targeting Thai victims. The phone scam ring comprised of the 15 Thai people and four Chinese and Taiwanese people who were also arrested at the same time. The Thai suspects were reportedly hired for 12,000-16,000 baht monthly plus a 3-7 per cent commissions each to make phone calls online to Thailand to trick Thai victims out of their money, claiming that they were staffs of the Bank of Thailand (BOT) and the victims had debts to repay. More than 10 Thai victims were reportedly tricked out of over 20 million baht. The Economic Crime Division asked the Chinese police to arrest them on June 18 and then brought the Thai suspects back to Thailand. (TNA)