National—
On February 27th, 2024, Pol. Lt. Gen. Panurat Lakboon, the Secretary-General of the Office of the Thai Narcotics Control Board (ONCB), publicly revealed after the arrest of a Chinese person who allegedly smuggled illicit substances at Suvarnabhumi Airport.
Pol. Lt. Gen. Panurat stated that on February 22nd, Thai ONCB officers in Beijing, China, reported that a suspect would smuggle illicit substances from Thailand to Australia. The Thai Airport Interdiction Task Force (AITF) was assigned to monitor the suspect at Suvarnabhumi Airport.
On February 26th, AITF detected the suspect, a Chinese national whose name was withheld by the police, and asked for a search. As a result, three kilograms of heroin were seized stashed inside two body powder cans, and a book.
The officers pressed charges of illicit substance offenses before escorting the suspect to the Thai Narcotics Suppression Bureau for further legal processing.
Pol. Lt. Gen. Panurat further added that apart from drug smuggling through the border of Thailand, aviation smuggling was another means as the drug smugglers boxed the illicit substances as parcels or disguised themselves as tourists.
In response to aviation smuggling, the Thai government established AITF, especially for drug smuggling via aviation means at the airports.
According to statistics from ONCB, from October 1st, 2022 to the present, AITF was able to seize 116 kilograms of methamphetamine and 116 kilograms of heroin, with a total of 85 cases of attempting to distribute illicit substances to Australia.
