A 42-year-old Taiwanese and a 29-year-old Thai man were charged with drug trafficking after police found 100 kilograms of heroin in their houses. -- PHOTO: AP
BANGKOK - THAI police charged a Taiwanese man and a local with trafficking after finding 100 kilograms of heroin in the country's biggest drugs bust in five years, police said Monday.
A 42-year-old from Taiwan and a 29-year-old Thai man were arrested on Sunday at two houses on the southern tourist isle of Phuket in a joint bust by Thai police and anti-drugs agents from the United States.
They found the stash worth millions of dollars under the kitchen floor.
'The value of the heroin in Thailand could reach 100 million baht (S$4.16 million), and it could be sold for up to one billion baht aboard,' deputy national police chief Phrewphan Damapong told reporters.
'This is the biggest bust in five years.'
Police also found gas containers in a raid on a second Phuket house, which Chief Phrewphan said the pair planned to use to transport the narcotics overseas.
The two men were charged with drugs trafficking, which carries the death penalty.
Chief Phrewphan said that information from US law enforcement suggested the heroin came from the notorious Golden Triangle area where Thailand, Laos and Myanmar meet, and was headed for Taiwan, China and Hong Kong.
Thailand toughened its stance on illegal drugs in 2002, but remains a transit point for narcotics produced in neighbouring Myanmar, the world's second largest opium producer and a major methamphetamine hub. -- AFP
