Thai police seize large sum of cash believed proceeds from drug sales

The Thai police have seized a large amount of cash in Malaysian ringgit and Thai baht, believed to be the gross proceeds from the sale of drugs in Kelantan and southern Thailand, with the arrest of a man and a woman during a road block here.

Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Ninth Division Police chief Maj Gen Sakorn Thangmuni said during inspections on their car, the police only found cash of one million baht.

However, further investigation found that the 47-year-old woman had once tried to send 5 million baht (approximately RM641,000) to a drug dealer in Sungai Golok, but the attempt was thwarted by the authority, he said.

Sakorn also said that the woman's husband was currently serving his time in jail in Kelantan after he was detained with 70,000 psychotropic pills during an operation three years ago.

He said the arrest of the duo led the police to a condominium in Hatyai, in which more cash, namely 1.5 million in Malaysian ringgit and 41 million in Thai baht (about RM5.2 million) were found.

"All the cash were hidden in two bags found under the bed. The police also found various types of jewellery and seized a car," he said.

During an inspection at the woman's house in Sungai Golok, the police found another stack of cash, totalling RM80,000, which she said belonged to her husband.

Sakorn said the duo would be taken to Bangkok to enable further investigation to be done to ascertain whether or not they were linked to the Asean Drug King, Xaysana Keopimpha, or main drug trafficker in southern Thailand, Usman Salamaeng. -- Bernama