นสพ.คอม - Background: The three-month heroin bust

<body> <h1>Background: The three-month heroin bust</h1> <p> Chapchai fades, hands Singapore Open to Jeev SinghLast week police made the biggest heroin bust since the end of the government s war on drugs in 2005, and it came after a three-month investigation. Police began tracking the movements of a suspected drug dealer, a man identified as 42-year-old Taiwanese Kuo Te Tsai, and all those he contacted since arriving in Thailand in early August, after receiving a tip-off from the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). After three months, police arrested Mr Kuo and suspect Pongthat Pongthathirasukul, 19, in a house in Phuket s Muang district on Nov 9. Police found 261 bars of compressed heroin, weighing a total of 104 kilogrammes, in a hidden well covered by concrete inside the house. It was a very tough task, said Narcotics Suppression Bureau chief Wut Liptapallop, recalling the three-month operation. Pol Lt-Gen Wut said police were asked to start the investigation before they had enough evidence to implicate Mr Kuo. There was no arrest warrant for Mr Kuo in the beginning and officers could not prove he was a core member of an influential mafia gang indentified as the Mangkorn Tai, or Southern Dragon. The information supplied by the DEA said only that Mr Kuo was believed to be a member of the biggest drug trafficking network in the Far East and that he had travelled to Thailand to contact drug dealers to transport heroin from the Golden Triangle (Burma, Laos and Thailand) to Phuket. The drug would be then sent to Taiwan, Hong Kong, China and the United States. According to the DEA, accomplices in northern Thailand, Bangkok and Phuket helped transport the heroin. The DEA s information was submitted to national deputy police chief Pol Gen Priewphan Damapong, who ordered an investigation team onto the case. The officers kept track of anybody Mr Kuo contacted, Pol Lt-Gen Wut said. Their photos were taken and their criminal and financial records were checked. Some persons contacted by this Taiwanese man had financial transactions worth millions of baht in one day, he said. After gathering enough evidence, police asked the court to issue arrest warrants for Mr Kuo and Mr Pongthat, as well as another five accomplices. They were Sarayuth Ketsarinniras, Sathit Paiboon-issarakul, Mana Chaidee, Sumit Thanapiromkul and Taiwanese Chen Wen Kellum. All are still at large. Police said Mr Kuo was assigned to guard the heroin while Mr Pongthat was supposed to take the drugs out of Thailand. </p> </body>