Sri Racha —
Authorities at Laem Chabang Port in Sri Racha seized over 1.4 tons of cannabis set to be illegally exported from Thailand to the UK. The cannabis was valued at up to over 100 million baht.
On September 25th, Mr. Direk Kocharak, Director of the Laem Chabang Port Customs Office, held a press conference to announce the seizure of over 1.4 tons of cannabis that had been illegally smuggled for export to the United Kingdom.
Mr. Direk revealed that the shocking discovery was the result of the Thai government’s and Ministry of Finance’s policies to focus on the prevention of illegal import, export, and transit of prohibited goods.
The Director-General of the Customs Department, Mr. Thirach Atanavanich, has ordered officials to be vigilant in monitoring for customs evasion and smuggling. These efforts are supported by international cooperation, including the Seaport Interdiction Task Force (SITF), the UNODC-WCO Container Control Programme (CCP), and the UK Border Force.
Mr. Direk further stated that through coordination with these organizations, the Laem Chabang Port Customs Investigation and Suppression Division was able to identify two suspicious export declarations bound for the United Kingdom. Officials ordered the goods to be detained for inspection before they could be exported.
On September 11th, customs officials, together with the exporter’s representative, inspected the first shipment, which was declared as rubber mats for fitness use, containing three pallets. Upon inspection, they found modified wooden boxes inside the pallets, concealing over 153.3 kilograms of cannabis buds valued at 5 million baht.
Then, on September 16th, officials and the exporter’s representative inspected the second shipment, declared as fabric gloves in four wooden crates. The inspection revealed compressed cannabis, cannabis buds, and rolled cannabis, weighing over 1.3 tons, valued at 20 million baht.
The total value of the seized items was 25 million baht, and if successfully exported, they could have fetched up to over 100 million baht, Mr. Direk said.
Cannabis was decriminalized in Thailand in 2022 but remains illegal in the UK, having led to many people trying to illegally export cannabis to the UK. A proposal was made by the prior Thai government led by Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, who was strongly anti cannabis, to recriminalize cannabis due to various alleged problems and issues, but Srettha was removed from his position by the Thai Constitutional Court after being found to have made an unethical decision while nominating political ministers, and due to pressure from pro-cannabis groups and politicians, the decision was made to not recriminalize the plant by the new government led by Paetongtarn Shinawatra and instead regulate it.
In theory, the regulation would be for medical and health use, but the new proposed regulations do not explicitly ban recreational use.
Meanwhile, some UK citizens have suggested to the UK government that instead of spending time and effort trying to stop the illegal importation of cannabis to the UK from legalised countries like Canada and Thailand, to instead consider also decriminalizing it, taxing it, and regulating it.
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